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tthe: life: 



OF 



FATHER HECKER." 



Rev. Walter Elliott. 



NOV 30 1891 



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New York : 
THE COLUMBUS PRESS. 

1891, 



Th« Library 
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mil obetat : 

AUGUSTINUS F. He WIT, 

Censor Deputatus. 



Umpdmatur : 

M. A. CORRIGAN, 

Archiepiscopus Neo-Ebor, 



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AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



n^HE reader must indulge me with what I cannot help saying, 
^ that I have felt the joy of a son in telHng the achieve- 
ments and chronicling the virtues of Father Hecker. I loved 
him with the sacred fire of holy kinship, and love him still — 
only the more that lapse of time has deepened by experience, 
inner and outer, the sense of truth and of purity he ever com- 
municated to me in life, and courage and fidelity to conscience. 
I feel it to be honor enough and joy enough for a life-time 
that I am his first biographer, though but a late born child and 
of merit entirely insignificant. The literary work is, indeed, but 
of home-made quality, yet it serves to hold together what is the 
heaven-made wisdom of a great teacher of men. It will be 
found that Father Hecker has three words in this book to my 
one, though all my words I tried to make his. His journals, 
letters, and recorded sayings are the edifice into which I intro- 
duce the reader, and my words are the hinges and latchets of 
its doors. I am glad of this, for it pleases me to dedicate my 
good will and-x my poor work to swinging open the doors of 
that new House of God that Isaac Hecker was to me, and that 
I trust he will be to many. 

WALTER ELLIOTT. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

L— Childhood. ..... i 

II. — Youth. ...... 12 

III. — The Turning-point. . . . .23 

IV. — Led by the Spirit. .... 36 

V. — At Brook Farm. . . . . .46 

VI. — Inner Life while at Brook Farm. . 57 

VII. — Struggles. . . . . . .67 

VIII. — Fruitlands. . . . . . "j^ 

IX. — Self-questionings. . . . .95 

X. — At Home Again. . . " . . loi 

XL — Studying and Waiting. . . .113 

XII. — The Mystic and the Philosopher. . 119 

XIII. — His Search among the Sects. . . 130 

XIV. — His Life at Concord. . . . 139 

XV. — At the Door of the Church. . . 148 

XVI. — At the Door of the Church — (Continued). 157 

XVII. — Across the Threshold. . . .166 

XVIII. — New Influences. .... 177 

XIX. — Yearnings after Contemplation. . .183 

XX. — From New York to St. Trond. . . 194 

XXL — Brother Hecker. .... 202 

XXII. — How Brother Hecker made his Studies 

AND WAS Ordained Priest. . . 213 

XXIII. — A Redemptorist Missionary. . . . 230 

XXIV. — Separation from the Redemptorists. . 251 

XXV. — Beginnings of the Paulist Community. . 281 



vi C ontents. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXVI. — Father Hecker's Idea of a Religious Com- 
munity. ..... 290 

XXVII. — Father Hecker's Spiritual Doctrine. . 302 

XXVIII.— The Paulist Parish and Missions. . 326 

XXIX. — Father Hecker's Lectures. . . .332 

XXX. — The Apostolate of the Press. . . 348 

XXXI. — The Vatican Council. . . . .361 

XXXII. — The Long Illness. . . . .371 

XXXIII.—" The Exposition of the Church." . . 392 

XXXIV. — In tpie Shadow of Death. . . . 402 

XXXV. — Conclusion. . . . , .412 



Appendix. . . . . . . . 422 




INTRODUCTION 



By Most Rev. John Ireland, D.D., 
Archbishop of St. Paul. 



T IFE is action, and so long as there is action there is Hfe. That 
^ Hfe is worth living whose action puts forth noble aspirations 
and good deeds. The man's influence for truth and virtue persever- 
ing in activity, his life has not ceased, though earth has clasped 
his body in its embrace. It is well that it is so. The years 
of usefulness between the cradle and the grave are few. The 
shortness of a life restricted to them is sufficient to discourage 
many from making strong efforts toward impressing the workings 
of their souls upon their fellows. The number to whose minds 
we have immediate access is small, and they do not remain. 
Is the good we might do worth the labor ? We cannot at times 
refuse a hearing to the question. Fortunately, it is easily made 
clear to us that the area over which influence travels is vastly 
more extensive than at first sight appears. The eye will not 
always discern the undulations of its spreading waves ; but on- 
ward it goes, from one soul to another, far beyond our immediate 
ranks, and as each soul touched by it becomes a new motive 
power, it rolls forward, often with energy a hundred times 
intensified, long after the shadows of death have settled around 
its point of departure. 

Isaac Thomas Hecker hves to-day, and with added years he 
will live more fully than he does to-day. His influence for good 
remains, and with a better understanding of his plans and ideals, 
which is sure to come, his influence will widen and deepen 
among laymen and priests of the Church in America. The 
writing of his biography is a tribute to his memory which the 
love and esteem of his spiritual children could not refuse ; it is, 
also, a most important service to , generations present and un- 



viii Introduction. 



born, in whose deeds will be seen the fruits of inspirations 
gathered from it. We are thankful that this biography has been 
written by one who from closest converse and most intimate 
friendship knew Father Hecker so thoroughly. He has given us 
in his book what we need to know of Father Hecker. We care 
very little, except so far as details may accentuate the great 
lines of a life and make them sensible to our obtuse touch, 
where or when a man was born, what places he happened to 
visit, what houses he built, or in what circumstances of malady 
or in what surroundings he died. These things can be said of 
the ten thousand. We want to know the thoughts and the 
resolves of the soul which made him a marked man above his 
fellows and which begot strong influences for good and great 
works, and if none such can be unfolded then drop the man 
out of sight, with a '' Requiescant in pace " engraven upon his 
tombstone. Few deserve a biography, and to the undeserving 
none should be given. 

If it be permitted to speak of self, I might say that to 
Father Hecker I am indebted for most salutary impressions which, 
I sorrowfully confess, have not had in me their due effect ; the 
remembrance of them, however, is a proof to me of the useful- 
ness of his life, and its power for good in others. I am glad to 
have the opportunity to profess publicly my gratitude to him. 
He was in the prime of life and work when I was for the first 
time brought to observe him. I was quite young in the ministry, 
and very naturally I was casting my eye around in search of 
ideal men, whose footsteps were treading the path I could feel I, 
too, ought to travel. I never afterwards wholly lost sight of 
Father Hecker, watching him as well as I could from a distance 
of two thousand miles. I am not to-day without some experience 
of men and things, won from years and toils, and I do not alter 
one tittle my estimate of him, except to make it higher. To the 
priests of the future I recommend a serious study of Father 
Hecker's life. To them I would have his biography dedicated. 
Older men, like myself, arc fixed in their ways, and they will not 
receive from it so much benefit. 



Introduction. ix 



Father Hecker was the typical American priest ; his were the 
gifts of mind and heart that go to do great work for God and 
for souls in America at the present time. Those qualities, assur- 
edly, were not lacking in him which are the necessary elements 
of character of the good priest and the great man in any time 
and place. Those are the subsoil of priestly culture, and with 
the absence of them no one will succeed in America any more 
than elsewhere. But suffice they do not. There must be added, 
over and above, the practical intelligence and the pliability of will 
to understand one's surroundings, the ground upon which he is 
to deploy his forces, and to adapt himself to circumstances and 
opportunities as Providence appoints. I do not expect that my 
words, as I am here writing, will receive universal approval, and 
I am not at all sure that their expression would have been 
countenanced by the priest whose memory brings them to my 
hps. I write as I think, and the responsibility must be all my 
own. It is as clear to me as noon-day light that countries and 
peoples have each their peculiar needs and aspirations as they 
have their peculiar environments, and that, if we would enter 
into souls and control them, we must deal with them according to 
their conditions. The ideal line of conduct for the priest in 
Assyria will be out of all measure in Mexico or Minnesota, and 
I doubt not that one doing fairly well in Minnesota would by 
similar methods set things sadly astray in Leinster or Bavaria. 
The Saviour prescribed timehness in pastoral caring. The master 
of a house, He said, " bringeth forth out of his treasury new 
things and oW," as there is demand for one kind or the other. 
The apostles of nations, from Paul before the Areopagus to 
Patrick upon the summit of Tara, followed no different principle. 

The circumstances of CathoHcs have been peculiar in the 
United States, and we have unavoidably suffered on this account. 
Catholics in largest numbers were Europeans, and so were their 
priests, many of whom — by no means all — remained in heart and 
mind and mode of action as alien to America as if they had 
never been removed from the Shannon, the Loire, or the Rhine. 
No one need remind me that immigration has brought us inesti- 



Introduction. 



mable blessings, or that without it the Church in America would 
be of small stature. The remembrance of a precious fact is not 
put aside, if I recall an accidental evil attaching to it. Priests 
^foreign in disposition and work were not fitted to make favor- 
able impressions upon the non-Catholic American population, 
and the American-born children of Catholic immigrants were 
likely to escape their action. And, lest I be misunderstood, I 
assert all this is as true of priests coming from Ireland as from 
any other foreign country. Even priests of American ancestry, 
ministering to immigrants, not unfrequently fell into the lines of 
those around them, and did but little to make the Church in 
America throb with American life. Not so Isaac Thomas 
Hecker. Whether consciously or unconsciously I do not know, 
and it matters not, he looked on America as the fairest con- 
quest for divine truth, and he girded himself with arms shaped 
and tempered to the American pattern. I think that it may be 
said that the American current, so plain for the last quarter of a 
century in the flow of Catholic affairs, is, largely at least, to be 
traced back to Father Hecker and his early co-workers. It used 
to be said of them in reproach that they were the " Yankee " 
Catholic Church ; the reproach was their praise. 

Father Hecker understood and loved the country and its 
institutions. He saw nothing in them to be deprecated or 
changed ; he had no longing for the flesh-pots and bread-stuffs 
of empires and monarchies. His favorite topic in book and 
lecture was, that the Constitution of the United States requires, 
as its necessary basis, the truths of Catholic teaching regarding 
man's natural state, as opposed to the errors of Luther and Cal- 
vin. The republic, he taught, presupposes the Church's doc- 
trine, and the Church ought to love a polity which is the 
offspring of her own spirit. He understood and loved the people 
of America. He recognized in them splendid natural qualities. 
Was he not right ? Not minimizing in the least the dreadful 
evil of the absence of the supernatural, I am not afraid to give 
as my belief that there is among Americans as high an appre- 
ciation and as lively a realization of natural truth and goodness 



hiti'odiiction. xi 



as has been seen in any people, and it seems as if Almighty 
God, intending a great age and a great people, has put here in 
America a singular development of nature's powers and gifts, 
both in man and out of man — with the further will, I have the 
faith, of crowning all with the glory of the supernatural. Father 
Hecker perceived this, and his mission was to hold in his hands 
the natural, which Americans extolled and cherished and trusted 
in, and by properly directing its legitimate tendencies and 
growth to lead it to the term of its own instincts and aspira- 
tions — Catholic truth and Catholic grace. Protestantism is no 
longer more than a name, a memory. The American has fallen 
back upon himself, scorning the negations and the doctrinal 
cruelties of Protestantism as utterly contrary to himself, as utterly 
unnatural ; and now comes the opportunity of the Catholic Church 
to show that she is from the God who created nature, by open- 
ing before this people her treasures, amid which the soul revels 
in rational liberty and intelligence, and enjoys the gratification 
of its best and purest moral instincts. These convictions are the 
keynote of Father Hecker's controversial discourses and writ- 
ings, notably of two books, Aspirations of Nature and Qicestiofis 
of the Soul. He assumed that the American people are naturally 
Catholic, and he labored with this proposition constantly before 
his mind. It is the assumption upon which all must labor who 
sincerely desire to make America Catholic. 

He laid stress on the natural and social virtues. The Amer- 
ican people hold these in highest esteem. They are the virtues 
that are mo^t apparent, and are seemingly the most needed for 
the building up and the preservation oi an earthly commonwealth. 
Truthfulness, honesty in business dealings, loyalty to law and 
social order, temperance, respect for the rights of others, and 
the like virtues are prescribed by reason before the voice of 
revelation is heard, and the absence of specifically supernatural 
virtues has led the non-Catholic to place paramount importance 
upon them. It will be a difficult task to persuade the American 
that a church which will not enforce those primary virtues can 
enforce others which she herself declares to be higher and more 



xii Introduction. 



arduous, and as he has implicit confidence in the destiny of his 
country to produce a high order of social existence, his first test 
of a rehgion will be its powers in this direction. This is ac- 
cording to Catholic teaching. Christ came not to destroy, but 
to perfect what was in man, and the graces and truths of reve- 
lation lead most securely to the elevation of the life that is, no 
less than to the gaining of the life to come. It is a fact, how- 
ever, that in other times and other countries the Church has 
been impeded in her social work, and certain things or customs 
of those times and countries, transplanted upon American soil 
and allowed to grow here under a Cathohc name, will do her 
no honor among Americans. The human mind, among the best 
of us, inclines to narrow limitations, and certain Catholics, aware 
of the comparatively greater importance of the supernatural, 
partially overlook the natural. 

Then, too, casuists have incidentally done us harm. They 
will quote as our rule of social conduct in America what may 
have been tolerated in France or Germany during the seven- 
teenth century, and their hair-splitting distinctions in the realm 
of abstract right and wrong are taken by some of us as prac- 
tical decisions, without due reference to local circumstances. The 
American people pay slight attention to the abstract ; they look 
only to the concrete in morals, and we must keep account of 
their manner of judging things. The Church is nowadays called 
upon to emphasize her power in the natural order. God forbid 
that I entertain, as some may be tempted to suspect me of 
doing, the slightest notion that vigilance may be turned off one 
single moment from the guard of the supernatural. For the 
sake of the supernatural I speak. And natural virtues, prac- 
tised in the proper frame of mind and heart, become super- 
natural. Each century calls for its type of Christian perfection. 
At one time it was martyrdom ; at another it was the humility 
of the cloister. To-day we need the Christian gentleman and 
the Christian citizen. An honest ballot and social decorum 
among Catholics will do more for God's glory and the salvation 
of souls than midnight flagellations or Compostellan pilgrimages. 



Introdiictio7t. xiii 



On a line with his principles, as I have so far delineated them, 
Father Hecker believed that if he would succeed in his work for 
souls, he should use in it all the natural energy that God had 
given him, and he acted up to his belief. I once heard a good 
old priest, who said his beads well and made a desert around his 
pulpit by miserable preaching, criticise Father Hecker, who, he 
imagined, put too much reliance in man, and not enough in God. 
Father Hecker's piety, his assiduity in prayer, his personal habits 
of self-denial, repel the aspersion that he failed in reliance upon 
God. But my old priest — and he has in the church to-day, both 
in America and Europe, tens of thousands of counterparts — was 
more than half willing to see in all outputtings of human energy 
a lack of confidence in God. We sometimes rely far more iipon 
God than God desires us to do, and there are occasions when a 
novena is the refuge of laziness or cowardice. God has endowed 
us with natural talents, and not one of them shall be, with His 
permission, enshrouded in a napkin. He will not work a miracle, 
or supply grace, to make up for our deficiencies. We must work 
as if all depended on us, and pray as if all depended on 
God. 

God never proposed to do by His direct action all that might 
be done in and through the Church. He invites human co-opera- 
tion, and abandons to it a wide field. The ages of most active 
human industry in religious enterprises were the ages of most 
remarkable spiritual conquests. The tendency to overlook this 
fact shows itself among us. Newman writes that where the sun 
shines bright in the warm climate of the south, the natives of 
the place know little of safeguards against cold and w^et. They 
have their cold days, but only now and then, and they do not 
deem it worth their while to provide against them : the science 
of calefaction is reserved for the north. And so, Protestants, de- 
pending on human means solely, are led to make the most of 
them ; their sole resource is to use what they have ; they are 
the anxious cultivators of a rugged soil. Catholics, on the con- 
trary, feel that God will protect the Church, and, as Newman 
adds, ''we sometimes forget that we shall please Him best, and 



xiv Introduction. 



get most from Him, when, according to the fable, we put our 
shoulder to the wheel, when we use what we have by nature to 
the utmost, at the same time that we look out for what is beyond 
nature in the confidence of faith and hope." Lately a witty 
French writer pictures to us the pious friends of the leading 
Catholic layman of France, De Mun, kneeling in spiritual retreat 
when their presence is required in front of the enemy. The 
Catholic of the nineteenth century all over the world is too quiet, 
/ too easily resigned to *' the will of God," attributing to God the 
effects of his own timidity and indolence. Father Hecker rolled 
up his sleeves and "pitched in" with desperate resolve. He 
fought as for very life. Meet him anywhere or at any time, he 
was at work or he was planning to work. He was ever looking 
around to see what might be done. He did with a rush the 
hard labor of a missionary and of a pastor, and he went beyond 
it into untrodden pathways. He hated routine. He minded not 
what others had been doing, seeking only what he himself might 
do. His efforts for the diffusion of Cathohc literature. The Cath- 
olic World, his several books, the Catholic tracts, tell his zeal 
and energy. A Catholic daily paper was a favorite design to 
which he gave no small measure of time and labor. He anti- 
cipated by many years the battlings of our temperance apostles. 
The Paulist pulpit opened death-dealing batteries upon the saloon 
when the saloon-keeper was the hero in state and church. The 
Catholic University of America found in him one of its warmest 
advocates. His zeal was as broad as St. Paul's, and whoever did 
good was his friend and received his support. The walls of his 
parish, or his order, did not circumscribe for him God's Church. 
His choice of a patron saint — St Paul — reveals the fire burning 
within his soul. He would not, he could not be idle. On his 
sick-bed, where he lay the greater part of his latter years, he was 
not inactive. He wrote valuable articles and books, and when 
unable to write, he dictated. 

He was enthusiastic in his work, as all are who put their 
whole soul into what they are doing. Such people have no time 
to count the dark linings of the silvery clouds ; they realize that 



Introduction. xv 



God and man together do not fail. Enthusiasm begets enthu- 
siasm. It fits a man to be a leader ; it secures a following. A 
bishop who was present at the Second Plenary Council of Balti- 
more has told me that when Father Hecker appeared before the 
assembled prelates and theologians in advocacy of Catholic litera- 
ture as a missionary force, the picture was inspiring, and that 
the hearers, receiving a Pentecostal fire within their bosoms, felt 
as if America were to be at once converted. So would it have 
been if there had been in America a sufficient number of 
Heckers. He had his critics. Who ever tries to do something 
outside routine lines against whom hands are not raised and 
whose motives and acts are not misconstrued ? A venerable 
clergyman one day thought he had scored a great point against 
Father Hecker by jocosely suggesting to him as the motto of his 
new order the word " Paulatim." The same one, no doubt, 
would have made a like suggestion to the Apostle of the Gen- 
tiles. Advocates of " Paulatim " methods have too often left the 
wheels of Christ's chariot fast in the mire. We rejoice, for its 
sake, that enthusiasts sometimes appear on the scene. The mis- 
sions of the early Paulists, into which went Father Hecker's 
entire heart, aroused the country. To-day, after a lapse of thirty 
or thirty-five years, they are remembered as events wherever they 
were preached. 

His was the profound conviction that, in the present age at 
any rate, the order of the day should be individual action — every 
man doing his full duty, and waiting for no one else to pro apt 
him. This, I take it, was largely the meaning of Father Hecker's 
oft-repeated teaching on the work of the Holy Ghost in souls. 
There have been epochs in history where the Church, sacrificing 
her outposts and the ranks of her skirmishers to the preservation 
of her central and vital fortresses, put the brakes, through neces- 
sity, from the nature of the warfare waged against her, upon 
individual activity, and moved her soldiers in serried masses ; and 
then it was the part and the glory of each one to move with tiie 
column. The need of repression has passed away. The authority 
of the Church and of her Supreme Head is beyond danger of 



xvi Introduction. 



being denied or obscured, and each Christian soldier may take to 
the field, obeying the breathings of the Spirit of truth and piety 
within him, feeling that what he may do he should do. There is 
work for individual priests, and for individual laymen, and so soon 
as it is discovered let it be done. The responsibility is upon 
each one ; the indifference of others is no excuse. Said Father 
Hecker one day to a friend : " There is too much waiting upon 
the action erf others. The layman waits for the priest, the priest 
for the bishop, and the bishop for the pope, while the Holy Ghost 
sends down to all the reproof that He is prompting each one, and 
no one moves for Him." Father Hecker was original in his ideas, 
as well as in his methods ; there was no routine in him, mental 
or practical. 

I cannot but allude, whether I understand or not the true 
intent of it, to what appears to have been a leading fact in his 
life : his leaving an old-established religious community for the 
purpose of instituting that of the Paulists. I will speak so far 
of this as I have formed an estimate of it. To me, this fact seems 
to have been a Providential circumstance in keeping with all else 
in his life. I myself have at this moment such thoughts as I 
imagine must have been running through his mind during that 
memorable sojourn in Rome, which resulted in freeing him from 
his old allegiance. The work of evangelizing America demands 
new methods. It is time to draw forth from our treasury the 
" new things " of the Gospel ; we have been long enough offer- 
ing *' old things." Those new methods call for newly-equipped 
men. The parochial clergy will readily confess that they cannot 
of themselves do all that God now demands from His Church in 
this country. They are too heavily burdened with the ordinary 
duties of the ministry : instructing those already within the fold, 
administering the sacraments, building temples, schools, and asy- 
lums — duties which must be attended to and which leave slight 
leisure for special studies or special labors. Father Hecker or- 
ganized the Paulist community, and did in his way a great work 
for the conversion of the country. He made no mistake when 
he planned for a body of priests, more disciplined than usually 



httroduction. 



XVll 



are the parochial clergy, and more supple in the character of 
their institute than the existing religious orders. 

We shall always distinguish Isaac Thomas Hecker as the 
ornament, the flower of our American priesthood — the type that 
we wish to see reproduced among us in widest proportions. 
Ameliorations may be sought for in details, and the more of them 
the better for religion ; but the great lines of Father Hecker's 
personality we should guard with jealous love in the formation 
of the future priestly characters of America. 




THE LIFE OF FATHER HECKER, 



CHAPTER L 

CHILDHOOD. 

TOWARDS the close of the eighteenth century a German 
clockmaker named Engel Freund, accompanied by his wife 
and children, left his native town of Elberfeld, in Rhenish Prussia, 
to seek a new home in America. There is a family tradition to 
the effect that his forefathers were French, and that they came 
into Germany on account of some internal commotion in their 
own country. The name makes it more probable that they were 
Alsatians who quietly moved across the Rhine, either when their 
province was first ceded to France, or perhaps later, at the time 
of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. When Engel 
Freund quitted Germany the disturbing influences of the French 
Revolution may have had a considerable share in determining 
his departure. He landed at New York in 1797 and established 
himself in Hester Street, between Christie and Forsyth. 

His wife, born Ann Elizabeth Schneider, in 1764, was a na- 
tive of Frankenburg, Hesse Cassel. She became the mother of 
a son and several daughters, who attained maturity and settled 
in New York. As his girls grew into womanhood and married, 
Engel Freund, who was a thrifty and successful tradesman in his 
prime, dowered each of them with a house in his own neighbor- 
hood, seeking thus to perpetuate in the new the kindly patri- 
archal customb of the old land. 

To the New-Yorker of to-day, or, indeed, to any reputable 
and industrious immigrant, the notion of settling a family in 
Hester Street could not seem other than grotesque. It is now 
the filthy and swarming centre of a very low population. The 
Jewish pedlar par eminence lives there and thereabouts. Signs 
painted in the characters of his race, not of his accidental na- 



The Life of Father' Hecker. 



tionality, abound on every side. Here a synagogue occupies the 
story above a shop ; there Masonic symbols are exhibited be- 
tween the windows in a similar location. Jewish faces of the 
least prepossessing type look askance into eyes which they 
recognize as both unfamiliar and observant. Women, unkempt 
and slouchy, or else arrayed in dubious finery, brush against one. 
At intervals fast growing greater the remains of an extinct domes- 
ticity and privacy still show themselves in the shape of old-fash- 
ioned brick or wooden houses with Dutch gables or Queen 
Anne fronts, but for the most part tall tenement-houses, their 
lower stories uniformly given up to some small traffic, claim ex- 
clusive right of possession. The sidewalks are crowded with the 
stalls of a yet more petty trade ; the neighborhood is full of un- 
pleasant sights, unwholesome odors, and revolting sounds. 

But the Hester Street of seventy years ago and more was 
another matter. When a canal flowed through Canal Street, and 
tall trees growing on either side of it sheltered the solid and 
roomy houses of retired merchants and professional men, Hester 
Street was a long way up town. Seven years before the sub- 
ject of the present biography was born, that elegantly propor- 
tioned structure, the City Hall, which had then been nine years- 
a-building, was finished in material much less expensive than had 
been intended when it was begun. Marble was very dear, rea- 
soned the thrifty and far-sighted City Fathers of the day, and 
as the population of New York were never likely to settle to 
any extent above Chambers Street, the rear of the hall would be 
seen so seldom that this economy would not be noticeable. 
What is now Fourteenth Street was then a place given over to 
market-gardens. Rutgers Street, Rutgers Place, Henry Street, 
were fashionable localities, and the adjacent quarter, now so mal- 
odorous and disreputable, was eminently respectable. Freund's 
daughters, as they left the parental roof for modest houses of his 
gift close by, no doubt had reason to consider themselves abun- 
dantly fortunate in their surroundings. 

One of these daughters, Caroline Sophia Susanna Henrietta 
Wilhelmina, born in Elberfeld on the 2d of March, 1796, was 
still a babe in arms at the time of the family emigration. She 
was a tall, fair, handsome girl, not long past her fifteenth birth- 
day when she became a wife. Her hu.sband, John Hecker, was 
nearly twice her age, having been born in Wetzlar, Prussia, May 
7, 1782. He was the son of another John Hecker, a brewer by 



Childhood. 



trade, who married the daughter of a Colonel Schmidt. Both 
parents were natives of Wetzlar. Their son learned the business 
of a machinist and brass- founder, and emigrated to America in 
1800. He was married to Caroline Freund in the Old Dutch 
Church in the Swamp, July 21, 181 1. He died in New York, 
in the house of his eldest son, July 10, i860. 

Events proved John Hecker to have been equally fortunate 
and sagacious in his choice of a wife. At the time of their mar- 
riage he was thrifty and well-to-do. At one period he owned a 
flourishing brass-foundry in Hester Street, and during his early 
married life his prosperity was uninterrupted. But before many 
years had passed his business declined, and from one cause and 
another he never succeeded in re-establishing it. This misfor- 
tune, occurring while even the eldest of the sons was still a lad, 
might easily have proved irreparable in more senses than one. 
But the very fact that the ordinary gates to learning were so soon 
closed against these children caused the natural tendency they had 
toward knowledge to impel them all the more strongly in that 
shorter road to practical wisdom which leads through labor and 
experience. The Hecker brothers were all hard at work while 
still mere children, and before John, the eldest, had attained to 
legal manhood, they had fixed the solid foundations of an en- 
during prosperity, and all need of further exertion on the part 
of their parents was over for ever. 

Isaac Thomas Hecker, the third son and youngest child of 
this couple, was born in New York at a house in Christie Street, 
between Grand and Hester, December 18, 18 19, when his mother 
was not yet twenty- four. He survived her by twelve years 
only, she dying at the residence of her eldest son's widow in 
1876, in the "full possession of faculties which must have been 
of no common order. From her, and through her from Engel 
Freund, who was what is called '' a character/' Father Hecker 
seems to have derived many of his life-long peculiarities. *' I 
never knew a son so like his mother," writes to us one who 
had an intimate acquaintance with both of them for more than 
forty years. She adds : 

''Mrs. Hecker was a woman of great energy of character and strong re- 
ligious nature. Her son, Father Hecker, inherited bo:h of these traits, and 
there was the warmest sympathy between them. He was her youngest son, her 
baby, she called him, but with all her tender love she had a holy veneration for 
his character as priest. 



The Life of Father Hecker. 



" She deeply sympathized with him through the trials and anxieties that 
were his in his search after truth, and when his heart found rest, and the aspira- 
tions of his soul were answered in the Holy Catholic Church, her noble heart 
accepted for him what she could not see for herself. She said to a lady who 
spoke to her on the subject and who could not be reconciled to the conversion of 
a daughter : ' No, I would not change the faith of my sons. They have found 
peace and joy in the Catholic Church, and I would not by a word change their 
faith, if I could.' 

*^ She had a very earnest temperament, and what she did she did with all 
her heart. The last years of her life she was a great invalid, but from her sick 
room she did wonders. Family ties were kept warm, and no one whom she had 
loved and known was forgotten. The poor were ever welcome, and came to her 
in crowds, never leaving without help and consolation. She had a very cheerful 
spirit, and a bright, pleasant, and even witty word for every one. 

*' But the strongest trait in her character was her deeply religious nature. 
With the Catholic faith it would have found expression in the religious life, as 
she sometimes said herself. The faith she had made her most earnest and de- 
vout, according to her light." 

Mrs. Georgiana Bruce Kirby,* who spent a month at the 
house in Rutgers Street just after Isaac finally returned from 
Brook Farm, when Mrs. Hecker was in the prime of middle life, 
speaks of her as 

"a lovely and dignified character, full of 'humanities.' She was fair, 
tall, erect, a very superior example of the German house-mother. Hers was 
the controlling spirit in the house, and her wise and generous influence was 
felt far beyond it. She was a life-long Methodist, and took me v/ith her to a 
'Love Feast,' which I had never witnessed before." 

To the good sense, good temper, and strong religious nature 
of Caroline Hecker her children owed, and always cordially ac- 
knowledged, a heavy, and in one respect an almost undivided, 
debt of gratitude. Neither Engel Freund nor John Hecker 
professed any religious faith. The latter was never in the habit 
of attending any place of worship. Both were Lutheran so far 
as their antecedents could make them so, but neither seems to 
have practically known much beyond the flat negation, or at best 
the simple disregard, of Christianity to which Protestantism leads 
more or less quickly according as the logical faculty is more or 
less developed in those whose minds have been fed upon it. 
However, there was nothing aggressive in the attitude of either 
toward religious observance. The grandfather especially seems 
to have been a ** gentle sceptic," an agnostic in the germ, affirm- 
ing nothing beyond the natural, probably because all substantial 
ground for supernatural affirmations seemed to him to be cut 

* Years of F'.xperieiice. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1887. 



CJiildhood. 5 



away by the fundamental training imparted to him. He was a 
kindly, virtuous, warm-hearted man, with a life of his own which 
made him incurious and thoughtful, and singularly devoid of pre- 
judices. When his daughter Caroline elected to desert the 
Reformed Dutch Church in which the family had a pew, and to 
attach herself to another sect, he had only a jocular word of 
surprise to say concerning her odd fancy for " those noisy Meth- 
odists." He had a true German fondness for old ways and set- 
tled customs, and to the end of his days spoke only his own 
vernacular. 

*' Why don't you talk English ? " somebody once asked him 
toward the close of his life. 

"■ I don't know how," he answered. "I never had time to 
learn." 

*' Why, how long have you been here ? " 

** About forty years." 

** Forty years ! And isn't that time enough to learn English 
in?" 

** What can one learn in forty years ? " said the old man, with 
an unanswerable twinkle. 

Between him and the youngest of his Hecker grandchildren 
there existed a singular sympathy and affection. The two were 
very much together, and the little fellow was allowed to potter 
about the workshop and encouraged to study the ins and outs 
of all that went on there, as well as entertained with kindly talk 
that may at first have been a trifle above his years. But he was 
a precocious child, shrewd, observant, and thoughtful. It was in 
the old watchmaker's shop that the boy, not yet a dozen years 
old, and already hard at work helping to earn his own living, 
conceived the plan of making a clock with his own hands and 
presenting it to the church attended by the family, which was 
situated in Forsyth Street between Walker and Hester. The 
clock was finished in due time and set up in the church, where 
it ticked faithfully until the edifice was torn down, some forty 
years later. Then it was returned to its maker in accordance 
with a promise made by the pastor when the gift was accepted. 
In 1872 the opening number of the third volume of The 
Young Catholic contained a good engraving of it, accompanied 
by a sketch descriptive of its career. Although Father Hecker 
did not write the little story, it is so true both to fact and to 
sentiment that we make an extract from it. The clock hung in 



The Life of Father Hecker. 



the Paulist sacristy for about ten years. Then, for some reason, 
it was taken to the country house of Mr. George Hecker, where 
it was accidentally destroyed by fire : 

"There were points of resemblance in my own and my boy maker's nature. 
In him, regularity, order, and obedience were fixed principles; and with us both, 
Time represented Eternity. As the days of his young manhood came his pur- 
suits and tastes in life changed. Deep thought took possession of his mind, and 
with it a tender love for souls and a heart-hungriness for a further knowledge of 
what man was given a soul for, and the way in which he was to save it As these 
thoughts were maturing in his mind I often noticed his troubled look. One Sun- 
day in particular, he lingered behind the congregation and stood before me, 
with a new expression in his keen gray eye ; and amid the silence of the deserted 
aisles he thus apostrophized me : ^ Farewell, old friend ! fashioned by these hands, 
thou representest Truth, the eternal. What man is ever seeking, through me 
thou hast found. Here I stand, not man's but God's noblest work, as yet not 
having repaid my Maker with one act of duty or of service. Thou hast faithfully 
performed thy mission ; henceforth I labor to perform mine.' With a grave and 
sad look my boy maker, now a young man, left me. I felt then that we had 
looked our last upon each other in this place ; but little did either of us dream 
of where, when, and how we would meet again. For thirty-five years I labored 
on unchanged, though I must own to having had some ailments now and then. 
About this period of my existence I overheard straggling remarks, as the wor- 
shippers passed out of the church, which led me to conclude that some change 
was contemplated, and my suspicions were confirmed by the rector proposing 
from the pulpit the erection of a new church edifice in another part of the city, 
to be fashioned after a more modern style of architecture. ... In accordance 
with the promise made my boy maker, I was to go back to him. My heart 
bounded at the prospect. Never in all those years had I seen him. . . . 

** In a short time I learned that the author of my existence, after many hard 
struggles and trials, had at last found truth and light, peace and rest, in the 
bosom of the Holy Catholic Church. He had returned, when he found me, from 
the Plenary Council of 1867. He is now a priest, and the head of a religious 
community. Need I assure those who have been interested in my history that I 
also have found a home in the same community, where I am consecrated to its 
use? I am no longer alone now ; I am busy from morning until night, helping 
to regulate the movements of the community. There is not an hour in the day 
when I do not see my boy maker. We have established sympathies in common; 
I call him to prayers, to his meals, to his matins, and to his rest. Many a time, 
when he finds me alone, he gives me some spiritual reading, or says aloud some 
prayers. Every time I strike, he breathes an aspiration of love and thanksgiving. 
In short, we have found our glorious mission in our new birth. We are both 
apostles : I represent Time ; he preaches of Eternity." 

There can be little doubt, however, that the chief formative 
influence in the Hecker household was that which came directly 
through the mother. Young as she was when an unduly heavy 
share of the domestic burdens fell to her portion, she took it up 
with courage and bore it with dignity and fidelity. What aid her 



Childhood. 



father could give her was doubtless not lacking, but we may well 
suppose that, as age crept on Engel Freund, his business began 
to slip away from him into younger hands. He was probably no 
longer in a position to endow daughters or to undertake the edu- 
cation of o-randchildren. What is certain is that Caroline Hecker's 

o 

boys, after very brief school-days, were put at once to hard work. 
What decided their choice of an occupation is not so sure, but 
in all probability they consulted with their mother and then took 
the common-sense view that as there is a never- failing market 
for food staples, even poverty, if mated with diligence and sagac- 
ity, may find there a fair field for successful enterprise. John, 
the eldest, upon w^hom the mother soon began to rely as her 
right hand, went to learn his trade as a baker with a Mr. Schwab, 
whose shop was on the corner of Hester and Eldridge Streets. 
George, who was some three or four years younger, as the only 
girl, Elizabeth, came between them, presently followed his brother 
to the same business. 

As for Isaac, whom hard necessity, or, more probably, a mis- 
taken thrift, likewise forced away from school when not much 
more than ten years old, his earliest ventures bear a curious sym- 
bolic likeness to his latest. He earned his first wages in the ser- 
vice of a religious periodical, the Methodist publication still known 
as Zioiis Herald, whose office was situated in Crosby Street near 
Broadway. From there he w^ent to learn a trade in the type 
foundry in Great Thames Street. But as it was already apparent 
that the family road to prosperity was identical with that chosen 
by his elder brothers, we find him working away beside them in 
the bake-house by the time he was eleven. They had already 
established the bakery in Rutgers Street, between Monroe and 
Cherry, w^here the family lived for so many years. They had 
another shop in Pearl Street, to which Isaac used to carry bread 
every morning. 

This was a part of his life to which he w^as fond of recurring 
in his last years. ''Thanks be to God!" he said on the first day 
of 1886, "how hard we used to work preparing for New Year's 
Day ! Three weeks in advance we began to bake New Year's 
cakes — flour, water, sugar, butter, and caraway seeds. We never 
could make enough. How I used to work carrying the bread 
around in my baker's cart ! How often I got stuck in the gutters 
and in the snow ! Sometimes some good soul, seeing me unable 
to get along, would give me a lift. I began to work when I 



8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

was ten and a half years old, and I have been at' it ever 
since." 

And again, a few days later, as a poor woman carrying a heavy 
basket passed him in the street, he said to the companion of his 
walk : ** I have had the blood spurt out of my arm carrying 
bread when I was a baker. A lady asked me once for a hundred 
dollars to help her send her only son to college. I answered her 
that my mother had four children and got along without beg- 
ging, and that I would not exchange one year of those I spent 
working for several at college.'* 

Less than a month before his death he fell into conversation 
with a newsboy on the corner near the Paulist church in Fifty- 
ninth Street. *' It interested me very much," he said afterwards. 
" I found out that he is one of five little brothers, and their 
mother is a widow. She is trying to bring them up, poor thing ! 
It reminds me of my own mother." 

It is plain that there could not have been much room for for- 
mal study in a life of hard physical labor, so soon begun and so 
unremittingly continued during the yea/s usually given up to 
school work. An ordinary boy, placed in such circumstances, 
would doubtless have grown up ignorant and unformed. But while 
none of the Hecker boys was quite of the ordinary stamp, Isaac 
was distinctly siii generis a.nd individual. He has said of himself 
that he could remember no period of his life when he had not 
the consciousness of having been sent into the world for some 
especial purpose. What it was he knew not, but expectation and 
desire for the withheld knowledge kept him pondering and self- 
withdrawn. Once in his childhood he was given over for death 
with a bad attack of confluent small-pox, and his mother came 
to his bedside to tell him so. " No, mother," he answered her, 
" I shall not die now. God has a work for me to do in the 
world, and I shall live to do it." 

Such instruction as Isaac obtained before beginning to earn 
his own bread was given him in Ward School No. 7. A Dr. 
Kirby was then its principal, and the time was just previous to 
the introduction of the present system. The schools were not 
entirely free, a small payment being required from the parents for 
each pupil, to supplement the grant of public funds. No doubt 
the boy, who had an ardent thirst for knowledge, regretted his 
removal from his desk more deeply than he was at the time will- 
ing to express. Still, it may be questioned whether he ever had 



Childhood. 



any natural aptitude for close, continuous book-work, at least on or- 
dinary and prescribed lines. He was ** always studying," indeed, 
as he sometimes said in speaking of his early life, but the thoughts 
of other men, whether written or spoken, do not seem to have been 
greatly valued by him, except as keys which might help him to 
unlock those mysteries of God and man, and their mutual rela- 
tions, which tormented him from the first. He was to the last an 
indefatigable reader, but yet it would be true to say that he was 
never either a student or a scholar in the ordinary sense. It is 
a curious question as to how a thorough education might have 
modified Father Hecker. It is possible — nay, as the reader may 
be inclined to believe with us as the story of his inner life goes 
on, it is even probable — that the more he was taught by God the 
less he was able to receive from men. 

It is certain, however, that he seriously regretted and soon set 
himself to rectify the deficiencies of his early training. This was 
one of the reasons which took him to Brook Farm. In the first 
entry of the earliest of his diaries which has been preserved he 
thus speaks of his hidden longing after knowledge. He was 
twenty-three when these sentences were written, and he had been 
at Brook Farm for several months : 

'* If I cast a glance upon a few years of my past life, it appears to me mysteri- 
ously incomprehensible that I should be where I am now. I confess sincerely that, 
although 1 have never labored for it, still, something in me always dreamed of it. 
Once, when I was lying on the floor, my mother said to my brother John, with- 
out anything previously being spoken on the subject, and suddenly, in a kind 
of unconscious speech, 'John, let Isaac go to college and study.' These 
words went through me like liquid fire. He made some evasive answer and 
there it ended. Although to study has always been the secret desire of my heart 
from my youth, I never felt inclined to open my mind to any one on the subject. 
And now I find, after a long time, that I have been led here as strangely as pos- 
sible." 

His childhood seems to have been a serious one. In recurring 
to it in later life, as he often did, he never spoke of any games 
or sports in which he had shared, nor, in fact, of any amusements 
before the time when he began to attend lectures and the theatre. 
It was the childhood of what we call in America a self-made 
man — one in which the plastic human material is rudely dealt 
with by circumstances. His mother taught him his prayers, the 
schoolmistress his letters, necessity his daily round of duties, and 
for the rest he was left very much to himself and to that interior 
Master of whose stress and constraint upon him he grew more 



The Life of Father Hecker. 



intimately conscious as he grew in years. The force of this in- 
ward pressure showed itself in many ways. Outwardly it made 
his manner undemonstrative, and fixed an intangible yet very 
real barrier between him and his kindred, even when the affection 
that existed was extremely close and tender. From infancy he 
exhibited that repugnance to touching or being touched by any 
one which marked him to the end. Even his mother refrained 
from embracing him, knowing this singular aversion. She would 
stroke his face, instead, when she was pleased with him, and say, 
"That is my kiss for you, my son." 

The mutual respect for each other's personalities shown in 
this closest of human relations was characteristic of the entire 
family, as will be seen later, when the nature of the business 
connections between Isaac and his brothers has to be considered. 
Far from weakening the natural ties, or impairing their proper 
influence, it seems to have strengthened and perfected them. 
Asked once towards the close of his life how it was that he had 
never used tobacco in any form, he answered : *' Mother forbade 
it, and that was enough for George and me. I was never ruled 
in any way but by her affection. That was sufficient." The 
parallel fact that he never in his life drank a drop of liquor at a 
bar or at any public place was probably due to a similar injunc- 
tion. The children were brought up, too, with exceedingly strict 
ideas about lying and stealing, and ail petty vices. Throughout 
the family there prevailed an extreme severity on such faults. 
** I have never forgotten," said Father Hecker, " the furious anger 
of an aunt of mine and the violent beating she gave one of my 
cousins for stealing a cent from her drawer. That training has 
had a great and lasting effect upon my character." 

In such antecedents and surroundings it is easy to see the source 
of that abiding confidence in human nature, and that love for the 
natural virtues which marked Father Hecker's whole career. 
They had kept his own youth pure. He had been baptized in in- 
fancy, however, as the children of orthodox Protestants more com- 
monly were at that period than at present, and in all probability 
validly, so that one could never positively say that nature in him 
had ever been unaided by grace in any particular instance. It is 
the conviction of those who knew him best that he had never 
been guilty of deliberate mortal sin. One of these writers : 

"During all the intimate hours I spent with him, speaking of his past life 
he never once said that he had been a sinner in a sense to convey the idea of mortal 



Childhood. 1 1 



sin. And on the other hand he said much to the contrary; so much as to leave 
no manner of doubt on my mind that he had kept his baptismal innocence. 
He was deeply attached to an edifying and religious mother ; he was at hard 
work before the dawn of sensual passion, and his recreation, even as a boy, was 
in talking and reading about deep social and philosophical questions, and lis- 
tening to others on the same themes. He expressly told me that he had never 
used drink in excess, and that he had never sinned against purity, never was 
profane, never told a lie ; and he certainly never was dishonest. 

'' The influence of his mother was of the most powerful kind. He told me 
that the severest punishment she ever inflicted on him was once or twice (once 
only, I am pretty sure) to tell him that she was angry with him ; and this so 
distressed him that he was utterly miserable, sat down on the floor completely 
overcome, and so remained till she after a time relented and restored him to 
favor. Such a relationship is quite instructive in reference to the original inno- 
cence of his life." 




CHAPTER 11. 

YOUTH. 

IT has been said already, in speaking of Father Hecker's childhood, 
that he had been consciously under the influence of super- 
natural impressions from a very early period. It seems probable, 
therefore, that at least during the few years which preceded his 
juvenile plunge into poHtics he must have been devout and 
prayerful, though doubtless in his own spontaneous way. Such 
were his mother's characteristics, and we find her son writing to 
her, when his aspirations after the perfect life had led him to the 
threshold of the church, that she, of all persons, ought most to 
sympathize with him, for he is about doing that which will aid 
him to be what she has always desired to see him. But his de- 
votions probably bore small resemblance to those of the ordinary 
religiously minded boy, either Catholic or Protestant. He has 
said that often at night, when lying on the shavings before the 
oven in the bake-house, he would start up, roused in spite of 
himself by some great thought, and run out upon the wharves to 
look at the East River in the moonlight, or wander about under 
the spell of some resistless aspiration. What does God desire from 
me ? How shall I attain unto Him ? What is it He has sent 
me into the world to do ? These were the ceaseless questions of 
a heart that rested, meanwhile, in an unshaken confidence that 
time would bring the answer. 

But these were early days, days when the influence of his 
mother, never wholly shaken ofl", was still dominant and pervasive 
in all that concerned him. There came a period, however, begin- 
ning in all likelihood about his fourteenth, and lasting until his 
twentieth year or thereabouts, in which he certainly lost hold on 
all distinctively Christian doctrines. With such a mind as his, 
and such a training, this was almost inevitable. His intellect, 
while it hungered incessantly after supernatural truth, kept never- 
theless a persistent hold upon the verities of the natural order, 
and could not rest until it had synthetized them into a coherent 
whole. That was his life-long characteristic. During the years 
of painful ill health which preceded his death, he often said that 
he was unlike the Celt, who takes to the supernatural as if by. 
instinct. " But I am a Saxon and cling to the earth," he would 



Youth. 1 3 



say; ** I want an explicit and satisfactory reason why any inno- 
cent pleasure should not be enjoyed." He attributed this to his 
racial peculiarities. Others may differ with him and credit it to 
his nature, taken in its human and rational integrity. Further- 
more, he was always singularly independent and self-poised. He 
could not endure being hindered of anything that was his, except 
by an authority which had legitimated to his intelligence its right 
to command. He could obey that readily and entirely, as his 
life from infancy clearly witnesses ; but he never knew a merely 
arbitrary master. 

Such a nature, fed on the mingled truth and error character- 
istic of orthodox Protestantism, was certain to reject it sooner 
or later, impelled by hunger for the whole Divine gift of which 
that teaching contains fragments only. The soul of Isaac Hecker 
was one athirst for God from the first dawn of its conscious 
being. Upon Him, its Creator and Source, it never lost hold, 
and never ceased to cry out for Him with longing and aspira- 
tion, even during that bitter and protracted period of his youth 
when his mind, entangled in the maze of philosophic subjectiv- 
ism, seemed in danger of rejecting theism altogether. But the 
underpinning of his faith, so far as that professed to be Chris- 
tian and to come by hearing — to have an intellectual basis, that 
is — began to slip away almost as soon as he left his mother's 
knee. It is possible that very little stress was ever laid upon 
distinctively Christian doctrines in her teaching. To adore God 
the Creator, to listen^ to His voice in conscience, to live hon- 
estly and purely as in His sight — the heritage she transmitted 
to him probably contained little more than this. Like most 
others reared in heresy who afterwards attain to the true knowl- 
edge of the Incarnation, he had to seek for it with almost as 
great travail of mind as if he had been born a pagan. It can- 
not be too strongly insisted on, however, that his struggles were 
merely intellectual, and, when they began to take a definite turn, 
shaped themselves into the natural result of a metaphysic as re- 
pugnant to common sense as it is to Christian philosophy. To 
this fact, so important in certain of its bearings, we have ample 
testimony in the private diaries kept before his conversion, from 
which we shall make extracts later on. They find a later con- 
firmation in some most interesting memoranda, jotted down, after 
conversation with him at intervals during the last years of his 
life, by one whom he admitted to an unusually close intimacy. 



14 The Life of Father Hecker. 



He was always singularly reserved concerning matters purely 
personal ; his confidences, when they touched his own soul, sel- 
dom seemed entirely voluntary, and were quickly checked. 
Occasionally they were taken by surprise, as when the course of 
talk insensibly turned toward internal ways ; and again they were 
deliberately angled for with a hook so well concealed that it 
secured a prize before he was aware. From these notes we 
shall here make a few quotations bearing on the point made 
above-^2>., that his difficulties prior to his entrance into the 
church were neither moral nor spiritual, but intellectual. Of 
him, if of any man, it was always true that his heart was natu- 
rally Christian. The first of these extracts, bearing as it does 
on a topic constantly in his thoughts, affords a good enough 
example of what was meant in saying that his confidences were 
sometimes taken by surprise : 

" There are some for whom the predominant influence is the external one, 
authority, example, precept, and the like. Others in whose lives the interior 
action of the Holy Spirit predominates. In my case, from my childhood God 
influenced me by an interior light and by the interior touch of His Holy 
Spirit." 

At another time he said: 

'^ While I was a youth, and in early manhood, I was preserved from certain 
sins and certain occasions of sin, in a way that was peculiar and remarkable. I 
was also at the same time, and, indeed, all the time, conscious that God was 
preserving me innocent with a view to some future providence. Mind, all this 
was long before I came into the church." 

And again : 

'■'■ Many a time before my conversion God gave me grace to weep over 
those words : ' And all those who love His coming.' I did not believe in His 
coming, but I loved it honestly and longed to believe it. I had learned much 
of the Bible from my mother and had read it often and much myself." 

This consciously supernatural character of his inner life from 
the first, should be kept closely united in the reader's mind 
with that other idea of his adhesion to " guileless nature " which 
v/as such a favorite theme with Father Hecker. No one could be 
more emphatic than he in asserting the necessity of the super- 
natural for the attainment of man's destiny. How could it be 
otherwise, when he considered that destiny to be the elevation 
of man above all good merely human, and by means far beyond 
the compass of his natural powers ? Still, this was undoubtedly 
a conclusion of his riper years, a result arrived at after a certain 



Youth. 1 5 

intense if not very prolonged experience in contemporary Uto- 
pias, in futile endeavors to raise man above his own level while 
remaining on it, whether by socialistic schemes or social politics. 

In an article called '*Dr. Brownson and the Workingman's 
Party Fifty Years Ago," published in The Catholic World 
of May, 1887, Father Hecker has himself made some interesting 
references to his experiences in the latter field, and upon these 
we shall draw heavily for our own account of this period of his 
life, supplementing them with whatever bears upon the subject 
in the memoranda already referred to. 

Concerning the inception of this party, to which all three of 
the young Heckers belonged in 1834, we have a better state- 
ment in Dr. Brownson's Convert than we know of elsewhere. 
Brownson was for a time actively interested in it, and in 1829 
established a journal in support of its principles somewhere in 
Western New York. From him we learn that it was started in 
1828 by Robert Dale Owen, Robert L. Jennings, George H. 
Evans, Fanny Wright, and a few other doctrinaires, foreign-born 
without exception, in the hope of getting control of political 
power so as to use it for establishing purely secular schools. 
Their advocacy of anti-Christian and free-love doctrines had so 
signally failed among adult Americans that the slower but surer 
method of educating the children of the country without religion 
had dawned upon them as more certain to succeed. 

''We hoped," writes Dr. Brownson, ''by Unking our cause with the ultra- 
democratic sentiment of the country, which had had from the time of Jefferson 
and Tom Paine something of an anti-Christian character ; by professing our- 
selves the bold and uncompromising champions of equality ; by expressing a 
great love for the people and a deep sympathy with the laborer, whom we repre- 
sented as defrauded and oppressed by his employer ; by denouncing all pro- 
prietors as aristocrats, and by keeping the more unpopular features of our plan 
as far in the background as possible, to enlist the majority of the American 
people under the banner of the Workingman's party ; nothing doubting that, 
if we could once raise that party to power, we could use it to secure the adoption 
of our educational system." 

This party, however, both as an engine in politics and as a 
fitting embodiment of his private views. Dr. Brownson soon aban- 
doned. He was not truly radical, in the evil sense of that word, 
at any period of his career, and the theories of the leaders soon 
became insupportable to his moral sense. But he remained true 
to the cause of the workingmen while abandoning the organiza- 



1 6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

tion which assumed to voice their needs and their wishes. Probably 
these more ulterior aims of their leaders were never fully appre- 
ciated by the rank and file of those who followed them. Yet 
the genesis of the present purely secular school system, against 
whose workings and results nearly all Christian denominations 
are too late beginning to protest, is clearly traceable to the pro- 
paganda carried on half a century ago by men and women 
whose only half-veiled warfare against Christianity, property, and 
marriage was then an offence in the nostrils of our people 
at large. It is fair to predict that this generation, or another 
which shall succeed it, will yet have the good sense to regret, and 
the courage to atone for, the fact that hatred to the Catholic Church, 
and a desire to cripple her hands where her own children were 
concerned, should have been a more powerful agent in dragging 
them and theirs into the abyss of secularism than was their love 
of Christianity in deterring them from it. 

Father Heckers account of his own youthful connection with 
the " Workingman's Democracy," although written with the 
direct intention of placing his estimate of Dr. Brownson on 
record, has too many strictly autobiographic touches in it to be 
here omitted. Such passages, bearing on long past personal 
history, are fewer than we could wish them among his papers, 
published or unpublished. The five articles on Dr. Brownson, 
beginning in The Catholic World of April, 1887, and con- 
cluding in November of the same year, contain almost the only 
matters relative to his personal history which he ever put into 
print. Concerning the party, of which Dr. Brownson says that 
he had ceased to be a recognized leader at this time, al- 
though he still threw his influence as a speaker into all its 
projects for social reform. Father Hecker writes : 

" We called ourselves the genuine Democracy, and in New York City were for 
some years a separate political body, independent of the ' regular ' Democracy, 
and voting our own ticket. I have before me the files of our newspaper organ, 
the Democrat, the first number of which appeared March 9, 1836, published by 
Windt & Conrad, 1 1 Frankfort Street. In its prospectus the Democrat promises 
to contend for 'Equality of Rights, often trampled in the dust by Monopoly 
Democrats,' to battle ' with an aristocratic opposition powerful in talent and 
official entrenchment, and mighty in money and facilities for corruption.' 
' In the course of this duty it will not fail fearlessly and fully to assert the in- 
alienable rights of the people against ' vested rights' and 'vested wrongs.' It 
claims to be the 'instructive companion' of the mechanics' and workingmen's 
leisure, ' the promotion of whose interests will ever form a leading feature of 
the Democrat.'' And in the editorial salutatory it speaks thus : 



Youth. 1 7 



*' ' We are in favor of government by the people. Our objects are the 
restoration of equal rights and the prostration of those aristocratical usurpations 
existing in the state of monopolies and exclusive privileges of t-very kind, the 
products of corrupt and corrupting legislation. ... At this moment we are 
the only large nation on the face of the earth where the mass of the people 
govern in theory — where they may govern in reality, if they will — where the 
real taxes of government, although too heavy, are but trifling, and where a 
majority of the population depend on their own labor for support ; yet such is 
the condition of that large class that the fruits of their toil are inadequate to sus- 
tain themselves in comfort and rear their families as the young citizens of a re- 
public ought to be reared. 

" '. . . He is very shortsighted, however, who thinks that a majority of the 
people, where universal suffrage exists, will submit long to a state of toil and 
mendicity. The majority would soon learn to exercise its political rights, and 
command its representatives to carry the laws abolishing primogeniture and en- 
tails one step further, and stop all devises of land and prohibit it from being an 
article of sale. (In a foot-note of the editorial:) We actually heard these and 
several such propositions discussed by a number of apparently very intelligent 
mechanics, after the adjournment of a meeting called to consider the subject of 
wages, rents, etc' 

" At that time the main question was the condition of the public finances, 
and our agitation was directed chiefly against granting charters to private banks 
of circulation. We condemned these as monopolies, for we were hostile to all 
monopolies — that is to say, to the use of public funds or the enjoyment of public 
exclusive privileges by any man or association or class of men for their private 
profit." 

We Interrupt our direct quotation from this article in order 
to relate one of the humors of the period, so far as these bro- 
thers were concerned, in the words of the late Mr. George 
Hecker: 

" When we were bakers the money in common use was the 
old-fashioned paper issued by private banks under State charters. 
We were regularly against it. So we bought a hand printing- 
press and set it up in the garret of our establishment. All the 
bills we received from our customers, some thousands sometimes 
every week, we smoothed out and put in a pile, and then printed 
on their backs a saying we took from Daniel Webster (though I 
believe it was not quite authentic) : ' Of all the contrivances to 
impoverish the laboring classes of mankind, paper money is the 
most effective. It fertilizes the rich man's field with the poor 
man's sweat' They tried to punish us for defacing money, 
but we beat them. We didn't deface it ; we only printed some- 
thing on the back of it. Isaac and I often worked all night put- 
ting up handbills for our meetings, for in those days there were 
no professional bill-posters." 



The Life of Father Hecker. 



^ 



Father Hecker's acquaintance with Dr. Brownson, which had 
so powerful an effect upon his future career, began in 1834, 
when Brownson was invited to lecture in New York in favor of 
the principles and aims of this party. Isaac was then in his fif- 
teenth year. Among the conversations recorded in the memo- 
randa we find this reference to their earliest interview : 

" I first met Dr. Brownson in New York, in our house. I was then read- 
ing the Washington Globe^ Benton's speeches, Calhoun's, etc. The elder Blair 
was its editor ; its motto was, ' The world is governed too much ' — a motto in 
whose spirit there could be no great movement except in the way of revolution. 
After the establishment of the American Government the principle expressed 
in that motto could only be abandoned or pushed into revolution and anarchy. 

^' I put this question to Brownson : ' How can I become certain of the 
objective reality of the operations of my soul? ' He answered : ' If you have 
not yet reached that period of mental life, you will do so before many years,' 

^' It is a great humiliation for me to admit that I was ever in a state in which 
I doubted the actual validity of the testimony of my own faculties, and the real- 
ity of the phenomena of my mental existence. I had begun my mental life in 
politics, and in a certain sense in religion ; but to my philosophical life I was 
yet unborn." 

In the article on the " Workingman's Party," already quoted 
from, Father Hecker, after mentioning that Dr. Brownson con- 
tinued to lecture before the New York members of the party 
for several years, goes on as follows : 

'' If it be asked why a man like Dr. Brownson, a born philosopher, should 
have thus busied himself with the solution of the most practical of problems by 
undertaking to abolish inequality among men, the answer is plain. The true 
philosopher will not confine himself to abstract theories. But, furthermore, 
Brownson at this epoch of his life had lost his grip on the philosophy that leads 
men to trust in a supernatural happiness to be enjoyed in a future state; and 
the man who does not look to the hope of a future state of beatitude for the 
chief solace of human misery must look to this life as its end. If a man does 
not seek beatitude in God he seeks it in himself and his fellow-men — in the 
highest earthly development of our better nature if he becomes a socialist of 
one school, and in the lusts of the animal man if he becomes a socialist of the 
brutal school. The man who has any sympathy in his heart and is not guided 
by Catholic ethics, if he reasons at all on public affairs, will become a socialist 
of some school or other. Says Dr, Brownson in The Convert, p. loi : 

" ' The end of man, as disclosed by my creed of 1829, is obviously an earthly end, to be 
attained in this life. Man was not made for God, and destined to find his beatitude in the 
possession of God his Supreme Good, the Supreme Good itself. His end was happiness — not 
happiness in God, but in the possession of the good things of this world. Our Lord had said, 
' Re not anxious* as to what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be 
clothed ; for after all these thmgs do the heathen seek." I gave Him a flat denial, and said,. Be 



YoiitJi. 



anxious ; labor especially for these things, first for yourselves, then for others. Enlarging, 
however, my views a little, I said, Man's end for which he is to labor is the well-being and 
happiness of man in'this world — is to develop man's whole nature, and so to organize society 
and government as to secure all men a paradise on the earth. This view of the end to labor 
for I held steadily and without wavering from 1828 till 1842, when I began to find myself tending 
unconsciously towards the Catholic Church.' 

'' The reader will have seen by the extracts given that we were a party full 
of enthusiasm. I was but fifteen when our party called Dr. Brownson to deliver 
the lectures above mentioned. But my brothers and I had long been playing 
men's parts in politics. I remember when eleven years of age, or a year or two 
older, being tall for my years, proposing and carrying through a series of reso- 
lutions on the currency question at our ward meetings. As our name indicates — 
' Workingman's Democracy ' — we were a kind of Democrats. As to the Whig 
party, it received no great attention from us. At that time its chances of getting 
control of this State or of the United States were remote. Our biggest fight was 
against the 'usages of the party' as in vogue in the so-called regular Democracy 
embodied in the Tammany Hall party. This organization undertook to absorb 
us when we had grown too powerful to be ignored. They nominated a legislative 
ticket made up half of their men and half of ours. This move was to a great ex- 
tent successful ; but many of us who were purists refused to compromise, and ran 
a stump ticket, or, as it was then called, a rump ticket. I was too young to vote, 
but I remember my brother George and I posting political handbills at three 
o'clock in the morning; this hour was not so inconvenient for us, for we were 
bakers. We also w^orked hard on election day, keeping up and supplying the 
ticket booths, especially in our own ward, the old Seventh. I remember that 
one of our leaders was a shoemaker named John Ryker, and that we used to 
meet in Science Hall, Broome Street. 

" If this was the high state of my enthusiasm, so was it that of us all. Our 
political faith was ardent and active. But if we had been tested on our religious 
faith we should not have come off creditably ; many of us had not any religion 
at all. I remember saying once to my brother John that the only difference 
between a believer and an infidel is a few ounces of brains. . . . We were 
a queer set of cranks when Dr. Brownson brought to us his powerful and elo- 
quent advocacy, his contribution of mingled truth and error. He delivered his 
first course of-lectures in the old Stuyvesant Institute in Broadway, facing Bond 
Street— the same hall used a little afterwards by the Unitarian Society while 
they were building a church for Mr. Dewey in Broadway opposite Eighth Street, 
the very same society now established in Lexington Avenue, with Mr. Collyer as 
minister. The subsequent courses were delivered in Clinton Hall, corner of 
Nassau and Beekman, the site now occupied by one of our modern mammoth 
buildings. I forget how much we were charged admission, except that a ticket 
for the whole course cost three dollars. There was no great rush, but the lec- 
tures drew well and abundantly paid all expenses, including the lecturer's fee. 
The press did not take much notice of the lectures, for the Workingman's party 
had no newspapers expressly in its favor, except the one I have already quoted 
from. But he was one of the few men whose power is great enough to adver- 
tise itself. Wherever he was he was felt. His tread was heavy and he could 
make way for himself. 

" Dr. Brownson was then in the very prime of manhood. He was a hand- 



20 The Life of Father Hecker. 

some man, tall, stately, and of grave manners. His face was clean-shaved. 
The first likeness of him that I remember appeared in the D&jnocratic Review, 
It made him look hke Proudhon, the French Socialist. This was all the more 
singular because at that time he was really the American Proudhon, though he 
never went so far as ' La prop7'ieie^ c'est le vol.^ As he appeared on the platform 
and received our greeting he was indeed a majestic man, displaying in his de- 
meanor the power of a mind altogether above the ordinary. But he was essen- 
tially a philosopher, and that means that he, could never be what is called 
popular. He was an interesting speaker, but he never sought popularity. He 
never seemed to care much about the reception his words received, but he ex- 
hibited anxiety to get his thoughts rightly expressed and to leave no doubt 
about what his convictions were. Yet among a limited class of minds he always 
awakened real enthusiasm — among minds, that is, of a philosophical tendency. 
He never used manuscript or notes ; he was familiar with his topic, and his 
thoughts flowed out spontaneously in good, pure, strong, forcible English. He 
could control any reasonable mind, for he was a man of great thoughts and 
never without some grand truth to impart. But to stir the emotions was not in 
his power, though he sometimes attempted it ; he never succeeded in being 
really pathetic. 

" It must be remembered that although Dr. Brownson was technically 
classed among the reverends, he was not commonly so called. It may be said 
that he was still reckoned among the Unitarian ministry, owing mostly to his 
connection with Dr. Channing, of Boston, who took a great interest in the 
Workingman's party. But I do not think he was advertised by us as reverend 
or publicly spoken of as a clergyman. He may have been yet hanging on the. 
skirts of the Unitarian movement. But his career had become political, and his 
errand to New York was political. He had given up preaching for some years, 
and embarked on the stormy waves of social politics, and had by his writings 
become an expositor of various theories of social reform, chiefly those of French 
origin. So that the dominant note of his lectures was not by any means re- 
ligious, but political. He was at that time considered as identified with the 
Workingman's party, and came to New York to speak as one of our leaders. 
The general trend of his lectures was the philosophy of history as it bears on 
questions of social reform. At bottom his theories were Saint-Simonism, the 
object being the amelioration of the condition of the most numerous classes of 
society in the speediest manner. This was the essence of our kind of Deinocracy. 
And Dr. Brownson undertook in these lectures to bring to bear in favor of our 
purpose the life-lessons of the providential men of human history. Of course, 
the life and teachings of our Saviour Jesus Christ were brought into use, and 
the upshot of the lecturer's thesis was that Christ was the big Democrat and the 
Gospel was the true Democratic platform ! 

''We interpreted Christianity as altogether a social institution, its social 
side entirely overlapping and hiding the religious. Dr. Brownson set out to 
make, and did make, a powerful presentation of our Lord as the representative 
of the Democratic side of civilization. For His person and office he and all of 
us had a profound appreciation and sympathy, but it was not reverential or re- 
ligious; the religious side of Christ's mission was ignored. Christ was a social 
Democrat, Dr. Brownson maintained, and he and many of us had no other re- 
ligion but the social theories we drew from Christ's life and teaching ; that was 
the meaning of Christianity to us, and of Protestantism especially." 



YoiitJi. 21 

In penning the reminiscences just given Father Hecker prob- 
ably had in mind the whole period lying between his fourteenth 
year and his twenty-first. In the autumn of 1834, when he first 
made acquaintance with Orestes Brownson, Isaac Hecker was not 
yet fifteen, while the reform lecturer was in his early thirties. 
But the boy who began at once, as he has told us, to put philo- 
sophical questions, and to seek a test whereby to determine the 
vaHdity of his mental processes, was already well known to the 
voters of his ward, not merely as an overgrown and very active 
lad, always on hand at the polling booths, and ready for any 
work which might be entrusted to a boy, but also as a clear 
and persuasive speaker on various topics of social and political 
reform. 

Politics of the kind into which the young Heckers threw 
themselves so ardently were not very different in their methods 
fifty years ago from what they are to-day. Reform politics are 
always the reverse of what are called machine politics. The 
meetings of which Father Hecker speaks were spontaneous gath- 
erings of determined and earnest men, young and old, held 
sometimes in public halls, sometimes, when elections were close 
at hand, in the open street. Often they were dominated by 
leaders better able to formulate theories than to bring about 
practical remedial measures. The inception of all great parties 
has something of this character. It generally happens that 
principles are dwelt upon with an exclusive devotion more or 
less prejudicial to immediate practical ends. This is why young 
men, and even striplings, provided they are energetic and per- 
suasive, will be listened to with attention at such eras. Men are 
seeking for^ enlightenment, and hence views are taken for what 
they seem to be worth rather than out of respect for the source 
they spring from. Imagine, then, this tall, fair, strong-faced boy 
of fourteen, mounted, perhaps, on one of his own flour -barrels, 
dogmatizing the principles of social democracy, posing as a 
spontaneous political reformer before a crowded street full of 
men twice and thrice hie years, but bound together with him by 
the sympathies common to the wage-earning classes. It is true 
that Isaac Hecker and his brothers, of whom the eldest had but 
recently attained to the dignity of a voter, although still poor 
and hard-working, had already, by virtue of sheer industry and 
pluck, passed over to the class of wage-payers. But they were 
not less ardent reformers after than before that transition. Isaac, 



22 The Life of Father Hecker. 

at all events, was consistent and unchanged throughout his life 
in the political principles he adopted among the apprentices and 
journeymen of New York over half a century ago. There was 
little room for vulgar self-conceit in a nature so frank and sin- 
cere as his. What he had to learn, as well as what he had to 
teach, always dwarfed merely personal considerations to their 
narrowest dimensions in his mind. Hence his impulsive candor, 
the clearness of his views, and the straightforward simplicity of 
his speech at once attracted notice, and although so young, he 
went speedily to the front in the local management of his party. 
In the article already quoted from, he tells us that after 1834 
the managers left all future engagements of lecturers to his 
brother John and himself It was doubtless this fact which led 
directly to that lasting and fruitful intimacy with Dr. Brownson 
which then began. His was the strongest purely human influ- 
ence, if we except his mother's, which Isaac Hecker ever knew. 
And these two were on planes so different that it is hardly fair 
to compare them with each other. 




CHAPTER III. 

THE TURNING-POINT. 

A BRIEF consideration at this point of a certain permanent ten- 
dency of Father Hecker's mind will be of present and future 
value to the student of his life. It has been said already that he 
never changed the principles he had adopted as a lad among the 
apprentices and journeymen of New York ; principles which, for 
all social politics, he summarized in the homely expression, ** I am 
always for the under dog." Thus, in the article quoted in the 
preceding chapter, he had the right to say of himself and his 
associates : 

" We were guileless men absorbed in seeking a solution for 
the problems of life. Nor, as social reformers at least, were we 
given over to theories altogether wrong. The constant recurrence 
of similar epochs of social agitation since then, and the present 
enormous development of the monopolies which we resisted in 
their very infancy, show that our forecast of the future was not 
wholly visionary. The ominous outlook of popular politics at the 
present moment plainly shows that legislation such as we then 
proposed, and such as was then within the easy reach of State 
and national authority, would have forestalled difficulties whose 
settlement at this day threatens a dangerous disturbance of pub- 
lic order." 

We dwell on his political consistency, however, only because 
it affords an evidence of that unity of character which was always 
recognized in Father Hecker by those who knew him best. 
Change in him, in whatever direction it seemed to proceed, 
meant primarily the dropping off of accidental excrescences. 
There was nothing radical in it. What he once held with the 
settled allegiance of his intelligence he held always, adding to or 
developing it further as fast as the clouds were blown away 
from his mental horizon. From the standpoint of personal ex- 
perience he could fairly criticise, as he did in conversation some 
few years before his death, Cardinal Newman's dictum that "con- 
version is a leap in the dark." ** I say," he went on, " that it 
is a leap in the light" *' Into the light, but through the dark," 
was suggested in reply. 

" No," he answered. *^ If one arrives at a recognition of the 

2.3 



24 The Life of Father Hecker. 

truth of Catholic doctrine through one or other form of Protestant 
orthodoxy, then the difficulties of ordinary controversy will indeed 
leave him to the very end in the dark. But if he comes to the 
Church through the working and the results of natural reason, 
it is hght all the way, and to the very end. I had this out 
with Cardinal Newman personally, and he agreed that I was 
right." 

It is true that his views were rectified when he entered the 
Church, and that when once in it he was ever acquiring new 
truth and new views of truth. But his character never changed. 
He was a luminous example of the tiuth of the saying that the 
child is father to the man, so often apparently falsified by expe- 
rience. Boy and man, the prominent characteristic of his mind 
was a clear perception of fundamentals and a disregard of non- 
essentials in the whole domain of life. To reverse a familiar 
maxim, " Take care of the dollars and the cents will take care 
of themselves," might describe his plan of mental economy. To 
the small coin of discussion in any field of inquiry he paid little 
attention. One who knew him many years has often heard him 
say, *• Emphasize the universal always." 

He was a teacher by natural vocation. No sooner was he 
satisfied that he knew anything of general moment than he felt 
pressed to impart his knowledge. Contact with him could never 
be simply for acquaintance' sake ; still less for an idle compari- 
son of views. While no man could be more frank in the ad- 
mission of a lack of data on which to base an opinion in matters 
of fact, or a lack of illumination on afTairs of conduct or prac- 
tical direction, when such existed, yet to be certain was, to 
him, the self-luminous guarantee of his mission to instruct. But 
until that certainty was attained, in a manner satisfactory to 
both the intellectual and the ethical sides of his nature, he was 
silent. 

As a priest, though he undertook to teach anybody and 
everybody, yet he could seldom have given the impression of de- 
siring to impose his personal views, simply as such. His vital 
perception that there can be nothing private in truth shone 
through his speech too plainly for so gross a misconception to 
be easily made by candid minds. The f^ict is that the commu- 
nity of spiritual goods was vividly realized by him, and in good 
faith he credited all men with a longing like his own to sec 
things as they really are. As he had by nature a very kindly 



TJie Tu rn hig- Poiu t. 25 



manner, benignant and cheerful, the average man readily sub- 
mitted to his influence. In his prime he was always a most suc- 
cessful and popular preacher and lecturer, from the combined 
effect of this earnestness of conviction and his personal magnetic 
quality. Men whose mental characteristics resembled his became, 
soon or late, his enthusiastic disciples, and as to others, although 
at first some were inclined to suspect him, many of them ended 
by becoming his warm friends. 

It is in this light that we must view the precocious efforts of 
the young politician. Nothing was further from his thoughts at 
any time than to employ politics as a means to any private end. 
Although we have already quoted him as saying that he always 
felt bound to demand some good reason why he should not use 
all things lawfully his, and enjoy to the full every innocent plea- 
sure, yet that demand was made solely in the interests of human 
freedom, never in that of self-indulgence. He seems to have 
been ascetic by nature — a Stoic, not an Epicurean, by the very 
make-up of his personality. The reader will see this more clearly 
as we pass on to the succeeding phases of Father Hecker's 
interior life. But we cannot leave the statement even here with- 
out explaining that we use the word ascetic in its proper sense, 
to connote the rightful dominance of reason over appetite, the 
supremacy of the higher over the lower; not the jurisdiction of 
the judge over the criminal. In his case, during the greater part 
of his life, the adjustment of the higher and lower, the restraint 
he placed upon the beast in view of the elevation due to the 
man, was neither conceived nor felt as punitive. We shall see 
later on how God finally subjected him to a discipline so cor- 
rective as to_, be acknowledged by him as judicial. 

Isaac Hecker threw himself into public questions, then, because, 
being a workman, he believed he saw ways by which the work- 
ing classes might be morally and socially elevated. He wanted 
for his class what he wanted for himself. To get his views into 
shape, to press them with all his force whenever and wherever 
an opportunity presented itself, was for him the inescapable con- 
sequence of that belief. Like his great patron, St. Paul, ** What 
wilt Thou have me to do ? " was always his first question after 
his own illumination had been granted. There is a note in the 
collection of private memoranda that has been preserved, in which, 
alluding to the painful struggles which preceded his clear recog- 
nition that the doctrines of the Catholic Church afforded the 



26 The Life of Father Hecker. 

adequate solution of all his difficulties, he says that his interior 
sufferings were so great that the question with him was ''whether 
I should drown myself in the river or drov/n my longings and 
doubts in a career of wild ambition." Still, to those who knew 
him well, it is impossible to think of him as ever capable of any 
ambition which had not an end commensurate with mankind 
itself To elevate men, to go up with them, not above them, 
was, from first to last, the scope of his desire. The nature of his 
surroundings in youth, his personal experience of the hardships of 
the poorer classes, his intercourse with radical socialists, together 
with the incomplete character of the religious training given him, 
made him at first look on politics as a possible and probable 
means to this desirable end. But he was too sensibly impelled 
by the Divine impulse toward personal perfection, and too inflex- 
ibly honest with himself, not to come early to a thorough realiza- 
tion, on one hand of the fact that man cannot, unaided, rise above 
his natural level, and, on the other, that no conceivable ameliora- 
tion of merely social conditions could satisfy his aspirations. And 
if not his, how those of other men ? 

One thing that becomes evident in studying this period of 
Isaac Hecker's life is the fact that his acquaintance with Dr. 
Brownson marks a turniag-point in his views, his opinions, his 
whole attitude of mind toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Until then 
the Saviour of men had been represented to him exclusively as a 
remedy against the fear of hell ; His use seemed to be to furnish 
a Divine point to which men might work themselves up by an 
emotional process resulting in an assurance of forgiveness of sin 
and a secure hope of heaven. Christianity, that is to say, had 
been presented to him under the form of Methodism. The result 
had been what might have been anticipated in a nature so 
averse to emotional excitement and possessing^ so little conscious- 
ness of actual sin. Drawn to God as he had always been by 
love and aspiration, he was not as yet sensible of any gulf which 
needed to be bridged between him and his Creator ; hence, to 
present Christ solely as the Victim, the Expiatory Sacrifice de- 
manded by Divine Justice, was to make Him, if not impossible, 
yet premature to a person like him. Meantime, what he saw and 
heard all around him, poverty, inequality, greed, shiftlessness, low 
views of life, ceaseless and poorly remunerated toil, made inces- 
sant demands upon him. These things he knew by actual con- 
tact, by physical, mental, and moral experience, as a man knows 



The Til ni i7ig- Poin t. 27 



by touch and taste and smell. Men's sufferings, longings, 
struggles, disappointments had been early thrust upon him as a 
personal and most weighty burden ; and the only relief yet 
offered was the Christ of emotional Methodism. To a nature 
more open to temptation on its lower side, and hence more con- 
scious of its radical limitations, even this defective presentation 
of the Redeemer of men might have appealed profoundly. But 
Isaac Hecker's problems were at this time mainly social ; as, 
indeed, to use the word in a large sense, they remained until the 
end. Now, Protestantism is essentially unsocial, being an extrav- 
agant form of individualism. Its Christ deals with men apart 
from each other and furnishes no cohesive element to humanity. 
The validity and necessity of religious organization as a moral 
force of Divine appointment is that one of the Catholic principles 
which it has from the beginning most vehemently rejected. As a 
negative force its essence is a protest against organic Christianity. 
As a positive force it is simply men, taken one by one, dealing 
separately with God concerning matters strictly personal. True, it 
is a fundamental verity that men must deal individually with 
God ; but the external test that their dealings with Him have 
been efficacious, and their inspirations valid, is furnished by the 
fact of their incorporation into the organic life of Christendom. 
As St. Paul expresses it : '* For as the body is one, and hath 
many members ; and all the members of the body, whereas they 
are many, are yet one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit 
were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, 
whether bond or free, and in one Spirit have we all been made 
to drink."* 

It is plain, then, that a religion such as Protestantism, which 
is unsocial a^nd disintegrating by virtue of its antagonistic forces, 
can contribute little to the solution of social problems. Even 
when not actively rejected by men deeply interested in such 
problems, it is tolerably sure that it will be practically ignored 
as a working factor in their public relations with their fellows. 
Religion will remain the narrowly personal matter it began ; 
chiefly an affair for Sundays ; best attended to in one's pew in 
church or at the family altar. Probably it may reach the shop, 
the counter, and the scales ; not so certainly the factory, the 
mine, the political platform., and the ballot. If Christianity had 
never presented itself under any other aspect than this to Isaac 

* I Cor. xii. 12, 13. 



28 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Hecker, it is certain tliat it would never have obtained his alle- 
giance. Yet it is equally certain that he never rejected Christ 
under any aspect in which He was presented to him. 

Even concerning the period of his life with which we are now 
engaged, and in which v/e have already represented him as having 
lost hold of all distinctively Christian doctrines, we must empha- 
size the precise words we have employed. He " lost hold " ; that 
was because his original grasp was weak. While no authoritative 
dogmatic teaching had given him an even approximately full 
and definite idea of the God-man, His personality. His character, 
and His mission, the fragmentary truths offered him had made 
His influence seem restrictive rather than hberative of human 
energies. Yet even so he had not deliberately turned his back 
upon Him, though his tendency at this time was doubtless toward 
simple Theism. He had begun to ignore Christianity, simply be- 
cause his own problems were dominantly social, and orthodox 
Protestantism, the only form of rehgion which he knew, had no 
social force corresponding to its pretensions and demands. 

Now, upon this state of mind the teaching of Dr. Brownson 
came like seed upon a fallow soil. Like that which preceded it, 
it erred rather by defect than by actual or, at any rate, by wil- 
ful deviation from true doctrine. Isaac Hecker met for the first 
time in Orestes Brownson an exponent of Jesus Christ as the 
great Benefactor and Uplifter of the human race in this present 
life. Dr. Brownson has himself given a statement of the views 
which he held and inculcated between 1834 and 1843— which in- 
cludes the period we are at present considering — and it is so brief 
and to the point that we cannot do better than to quote it : 

"I found in me," he writes {The Convert, p. iii), ** certain 
religious sentiments that I could not efface ; certain religious 
beliefs or tendencies, of which I could not divest myself. I re- 
garded them as a law of my nature, as natural to man, as the 
noblest part of our nature, and as such I cherished them ; but as 
the expression in Die of an objective ivorld, I seldom pondered them. 
1 found them universal, manifesting themselves, in some form, 
wherever man is found ; but 1 received them, or supposed I 7'cccived 
them, on the authority of humanit}^ or human nature, and pro- 
fessed to hold no religion except that of humanity. I had become 
a believer in humanity, and put humanity in the place of God. 
The only God I recognized was the divine in man, the divinity 
of humanity, one alike with God and with man, which I sup- 
posed to be the real meaning of the Christian doctrine of the 



The Tti rji ing- Poiii t. 29 



Incarnation, the mystery of Emmanuel, or God with us — God 
manifest in the flesh. There may be an unmanifested God, and 
certainly is ; but the only God who exists for us is the God in 
man, the acti\'e and living principle of human nature. 

" I regarded Jesus Christ as divine in the sense in which all 
men are divine, and human in the sense in which all men are 
human. I took him as my model man, and regarded him as a 
moral and social reformer, who sought, by teaching the truth 
under a religious envelope, and practising the highest and purest 
morality, to meliorate the earthly condition of mankind ; but I 
saw nothing miraculous in his conception or birth, nothing super- 
natural in his person or character, in his life or doctrine. He 
came to redeem the world, as does every great and good man, 
and deserved to be held in universal honor and esteem as one 
who remained firm to the truth amid every trial, and finally died 
on the cross, a martyr to his love of mankind. As a social re- 
former, as one devoted to the progress and well-being of man in 
this world, I thought I might liken myself to him and call my- 
self by his name. I called myself a Christian, not because I 
took him for my master, not because I believed all he believed 
or taught, but because, like him, I was laboring to introduce a 
new order of things, and to promote the happiness of my kind. 
I used the Bib^_e as a good Protestant, took what could be accom- 
modated to my purpose, and passed over the rest, as belonging 
to an age now happily outgrown. I followed the example of the 
carnal Jews, and gave an earthly sense to all the promises and 
prophecies of the Messias, and looked for my reward in this 
world." 

The passages we have italicized in this extract may go to 
show how far Dr. Brownson himself was, at this period, from being 
able to give any but the evasive answer he actually did give to 
the searching philosophical questions put by his youthful admirer. 
But it is not easy, especially in the light of Isaac Hecker's sub- 
sequent experiences, to overestimate the influence which this new 
presentation of our Saviour had upon the development of his mind 
and character. For reasons which we have tried to indicate by 
a brief description of some of his life-long interior traits, the 
ordinary Protestant view, restricted and narrow, which represents 
Jesus Christ merely as the appointed though voluntary Victim of 
the Divine wrath against sin, had been pressed upon him pre- 
maturely. Now He was held up to him, and by a man who was 
in many ways superior to all other men the boy had met, as a 
great personahty, altogether human, indeed, but still the most 
perfect specimen of the race ; the supremely worshipful figure of 



30 The Life of Father Hecker. 

all history, whose life had been given to the assertion of the 
dignity of man and the equality of mankind. That human nature 
is good and that men are brethren, said Dr, Brownson, was the 
thesis of Christ, taught throughout His life, sealed by His death. 
The Name which is above all names became thus in a new sense 
a watchword, and the Gospels a treasury for that social apostolate 
to which Isaac Hecker had already devoted himself with an ear- 
nestness which for some years made it seem religion enough 
for him. 

So it has seemed before his time and since to many a benev- 
olent dreamer. Though the rites of the hunianitarian cult differ 
with its different priests, its creed retains everywhere and always 
its narrow identity. But that all men are good, or would be so 
save for the unequal pressure of social conditions on them, is a 
conclusion which does not follow from the single premise that 
human nature, inasmuch as it is a nature and from the hand of 
God, is essentially good. The world is flooded, just at present, 
with schemes for insuring the perfection and happiness of men 
by removing so far as possible all restraints upon their natural 
freedom ; and whether this is to be accomplished with Tolsto'i, by 
reducing wants to a minimum and abolishing money; or by estab- 
lishing clubs for the promotion of culture and organizing a social 
army which shall destroy poverty by making money plenty, ap- 
pears a mere matter of detail — at all events to dreamers and to 
novelists. But to men who are in hard earnest with themselves, 
men who ''have not taken their souls in vain nor sworn deceit- 
fully," either to their neighbor or about him, certain other truths 
concerning human nature besides that of its essential goodness 
are sure to make themselves evident, soon or late. And among 
these is that of its radical insufficiency to its own needs. It is a 
rational nature, and it seeks the Supreme Reason, if only for its 
own self-exphcation. It is a nature which, wherever found, is 
found in the attitude of adoration, and neither in the individual 
man nor in humanity at large is there any Divinity which 
responds to worship. 

It is impossible to say just when Isaac Hecker's appreciation 
of this truth became intensely personal and clear, but it is easy 
to make a tolerable approximation to the time. He went to 
Brook Farm in January, 1843, rather more than eight years after 
his first meeting with Dr. Brownson. It was by the advice of 
the latter that he made this first decisive break from his former 



TJie Tiiniing-PoiJit. 31 



life. From the time when their acquaintance began, Isaac appears 
to have taken up the study of philosophy in good earnest, and 
to have found in it an outlet for his energies which insensibly 
diminished his absorption in social politics. We have a glimpse 
of him kneading at the dough-trough with Kant's Critique vf 
Pure Reason fastened up on the wall before him, so that he 
might lose no time in merely manual labor. Fichte and Hegel 
succeeded Kant, all of them philosophers whose mother-tongue 
was likewise his own, and whose combined influence put him 
farther off than ever from the solution of that fundamental doubt 
which constantly grew more perplexing and more painful. We 
find him hiring a seat in the Unitarian Church of the Messiah, 
where Orville Dewey was then preaching, and walking every 
Sunday a distance of three miles from the foot of Rutgers 
Street, " because he was a smart fellow, and I enjoyed hstening 
to him. Did I believe in Unitarianism ? Xo ! I believed in 
not hill gy 

His active participation in local politics did not continue 
throughout all these years. His belief in candidates and parties 
as instruments to be rehed on for social purification received a 
final blow very early — possibly before he was entitled to cast a 
vote. The Workingmen had made a strong ticket one year, and 
there seemed every probability of their carrying it. But on the 
eve of the election half of their candidates sold out to one of 
the opposing parties. What other results this treachery may 
have had is a question w^iich, fortunately, does not concern us, 
but it dispelled one of the strongest of Isaac Hecker's youthful 
illusions. He continued, nevertheless, to prove the sincerity with 
which his views on social questions were held, by doing all that 
lay in his ^ower to better the condition of the men in the 
employment of his brothers and himself. After he passed his 
majority his interest in the business declined rapidly, and it is 
impossible to doubt that one of the chief reasons why it did so 
is to be sought in his changing convictions as to the manner in 
which business in general should be carried on. 

Although in accepting Christ as his master and model he 
had as yet no belief in Him as more than the most perfect of 
human beings, yet, even so, Isaac Hecker's sincerity and sim- 
plicity were too great to permit him to follow his leader at a 
purely conventional distance. " Do you know," he said long 
afterwards, '' the thought that first loosened me from the life I 



32 The Life of Father Hecker. 

led ? How can I love my fellow-men and yet get rich by the 
sweat of their brows ? I couldn't do it. You are not a Christian, 
and can't call yourself one, I said to myself, if you do that. 
The heathenish selfishness of business competition started me 
away from the world." 

If he had received a Catholic training, Isaac Hecker would 
soon have recognized that he was being drawn toward the 
practice of that counsel of perfection which St. Paul embodies 
to St. Timothy in the words : '' Having food and wherewith 
to be covered, with these we are content."* Could he have 
sought at this time the advice of one familiar with internal ways, 
he must have been cautioned against that first error to which 
those so drawn are liable, of supposing that this call is common 
and imperative, and can never fail to be heard without some 
more or less wilful closing of the ears. Though the Hecker 
brothers were, and ever continued to be, men of the highest 
business integrity, and though there existed between them a 
cordial affection, which was intensified to an extraordinary degree 
in the case of George and Isaac, yet the unfitness of the latter 
for ordinary trade grew increasingly evident, and to himself pain- 
fully so. The truth is, that his ideas of conducting business 
would have led to the distribution of profits rather than to their 
accumulation. If he could make the bake-house and the shop 
into a school for the attainment of an ideal that had begun to 
hover, half-veiled, in the air above him, he saw his way to stay- 
ing where he was ; but not otherwise. 

In the autumn of 1842 there came upon him certain singular 
intensifications of this disquiet with himself and his surround- 
ings. In the journal begun the following spring, he so frequently 
and so explicitly refers to these occurrences, now speaking of 
them as ** dreams which had a great effect upon my character "; 
and again, specializing and fully describing one, as something not 
dreamed, but seen when awake, '' which left an indelible impress 
on my mind," weaning it at once and for ever from all possi- 
bility of natural love and marriage, that the integrity of any 
narrative of his life would demand some recognition of them. 
His own comment, in the diary, will not be without interest and 
value, both as bearing on much that follows, and as containing 
all that need be said in explanation of the present reference to 
such experiences : 

* I Timothy vi. 8. 



The Turning- Point. 33 



'' April 2^, 1843. — • • • How can I doubt these things ? Say 
what may be said, still they have to me a reality, a practical 
good bearing on my life. They are impressive instructors, whose 
teachings are given in such a real manner that they influence 
me whether I would or not. Real pictures of the future, as 
actual, nay, more so than my present activity. If I should not 
follow them I am altogether to blame. I can have no such 
adviser upon earth ; none could impress me so strongly, with 
such peculiar effect, and at the precise time most needed. Where 
my natural strength is not enough, I find there comes foreign 
aid to my assistance. Is the Lord instructing me for anything? 
I had, six months ago, three or more dreams which had a very 
great effect upon my character ; they changed it. They were 
the embodiment of my present in a great degree. Last evening's 
was a warning embodiment of a false activity and its con- 
sequence, which will preserve me, under God's assistance, from 
falling. ... I see by it where I am ; it has made me 
purer." 

In addition to these peculiar visitations, and very probably 
in consequence of them, Isaac's inward anxieties culminated in 
prolonged fits of nervous depression, and at last in repeated 
attacks of illness which baffled the medical skill called to his 
assistance. Towards Christmas he went to Chelsea to visit 
Brownson, to whom he partially revealed the state of obscurity 
and distress in which he found himself. Brownson, who had been 
one of the original promoters of the experiment in practical 
sociology at West Roxbury, advised a residence at Brook Farm 
as likely to afford the young man the leisure and opportunities for 
study which he needed in order to come to a full understand- 
ing with himself. He wrote to George Ripley in his behalf, and 
later undertook to reconcile the Hecker household with Isaac's 
determination to go thither. 

It was during his stay at Chelsea that Isaac first began plainly 
to acquaint his family with the fact that his departure meant 
something more important than the moderately prolonged change 
of scene and circumstances which they had recognized as essen- 
tial to his health. We shall make abundant extracts from the 
letters which begin at this date, convinced that his own words 
will not only afford the best evidence of the strength of the 
interior pressure on him, but will show also its unique and con- 
stant bent. 



34 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Our purpose is to show, in the most expHcit manner possible, 
first, how irresistibly he was impelled toward the celibate life 
and the practice of poverty ; and second, that in yielding to this 
impulse, he was also drawn away from his former view of our 
Saviour, as simply the perfect man, to the full acceptance of the 
supernatural truth that He is the Incarnate God. 

It is at this period of Father Hecker's life that we first meet 
with a positive interference of an extraordinary kind in the plans 
and purposes of his life. Many men who have outlived them, 
and settled down into respectable but in nowise notable members 
of society, have felt vague longings and indefinite aspirations 
toward a good beyond nature during the " Storm and Stress " 
period of their youth. The record of their mental struggles gets 
into literature with comparative frequency, and sometimes becomes 
famous. It has always a certain value, if merely as contributing 
to psychological science ; but in any particular instance is of 
passing interest only, unless it can be shown to have been instru- 
mental in shaping the subsequent career. The latter was the 
case with Father Hecker. The extraordinary influences already 
mentioned continued to dominate his intelligence and his will, 
sometimes with, oftener without, explicit assignment of any cause. 
It is plain enough that, up to the time when they began, he 
had looked forward to such a future of domestic happiness as 
honest young fellows in his position commonly desire. ** He 
was the life of the family circle," says one who knew the Hecker 
household intimately ; '* he loved his people, and was loved by 
them with great intensity, and his going away must have been 
most painful to him as well as to them." 

On this point the memoranda, so often to be referred to, con- 
tain some words of his own to the same purport. They were 
spoken early in 1882: "You know I had to leave my business — 
a good business it was getting to be, too. I tell you, it was 
agony to give everything up — friends, prospects in life and old 
associates ; things for which by nature I had a very strong 
attachment. But I could not help it ; I was driven from it. I 
wanted something more ; something I had not been able to find. 
Yet I did not know what I wanted. I was simply in tor- 
ment." 

The truth is that, while he had always cherished ideals higher 
than are usual, still they were not such as need set him apart 
from the common life of men. But now he became suddenly 



The 



Tu rn iiig- Poin t. 



35 



averse from certain pursuits and pleasures, not only good in them- 
selves, but consonant to his previous dispositions. The road to 
wealth lay open before him, but his feet refused to tread it. He 
was invincibly drawn to poverty, solitude, sacrifice ; modes of life 
from which he shrank by nature, and which led to no goal that 
he could see or understand. There is no name so descriptive of 
such impulses as supernatural. 




CHAPTER IV. 

LED BY THE SPIRIT. 

THE earliest of the letters so fortunately preserved by the affec- 
tion of Isaac Hecker's kindred is addressed to his mother, 
from Chelsea, and bears date December 24, 1842. After giving 
some details of his arrival, and of the kindly manner in which 
he had been received, he writes : * 

" But as regards your advice to write my thoughts to you, 
that is an impossibility which I cannot govern or control. This 
ought not to be so, but so it is. Am I to blame ? I feel not. 
And what if I could tell ? It might be only a deep dissatisfac- 
tion which could not be made intelligible, or at least not be 
felt as it is felt by me. Let us be untroubled about it. A little 
time, and, I hope, all will pass away, and I be the same as usual. 
We all differ a little, at least in our characters ; hence there is 
nothing surprising if our experiences should differ. I feel that a 
little time will be my best remedy, which I trust we will await 
without much anxiety. Resignation is taught when we cannot 
help ourselves. Take nothing I have said discouragingly. Turn 
fears into hopes and doubts into faith, and we shall be better if 
not happier. There is no use in allowing our doubts and fears 
to control us ; by fostering them we increase them, and we want 
all our time for something better and higher." 

Two days later he writes more fully, and this letter we shall 
give almost entire : 

" Chelsea, December 26, 1842. — BROTHERS: I want to write to 
you, but what is the use of scrawling on paper if I write what I 
do not feel — intend ? It is worse than not writing. And yet 
why I should be backward I don't know. The change that I 
have undergone has been so rapid and of such a kind ; that may 
be the reason. I feel that as I now am perhaps you cannot un- 
derstand me. I am afraid lest your conduct would be such that 
under present circumstances I could not stand under it. Do not 
misunderstand me. If I have ever appreciated anything in my 
life, it is the favor and indulgent treatment you have shown me 
in our business. I know that I have never done an equal share 

* We have corrected some slight errors of orthography and punctuation in these early 
letters. They were of the sort to be expected from a self-trained youth, as yet little used to 
the written expression of his thoughts. They soon disappear almost entirely. 

36 



Led by the Spirit. 37 



in the work which was for us all to do. I have always been 
conscious of this. I hope you will receive this as it is written, 
for I am open. Daily am I losing that disposition which was 
attributed to me of self-approval. . . . There is no reason why 
I should distrust your dispositions toward me but my own feel- 
ings, and it is these that have kept me back, that and the change 
my mind is undergoing. This is so continuous, and at the same 
time so firmly fixed, that I am unable to keep back any longer. 
I had hopes that my former life would return, so that I would 
be able to go on as usual, although this tendency has always 
been growing in me. But I find more and more that it is not 
possible. I would go back if I could, but the impossibility of 
that I cannot express. To continue as I am now would keep me 
constantly in an unsettled state of health, especially as my future 
appears to be opening before me with clearness. I say sincerely 
that I have lost all but this one thing, and how shall I speak it ? 
My mind has lost all disposition to business ; my hopes, life, ex- 
istence, are all in another direction. No one knows how I tried 
to exert myself to work, or the cause of my inability. I was 
conscious of the cause, but as it was supposed to be a physical 
one, the reason of it was sought for, but to no purpose. In the 
same circumstances now I should be worse. When I say my 
mind cannot be occupied as formerly, do not attribute it to my 
wishes. This is what I fear ; it makes me almost despair, makes 
me feel that I would rather die than live under such thoughts. I 
never could be happy if you thought so. My future will be my 
only evidence. My experience, which is now my own evidence, 
I cannot give you. To keep company with females — you know 
what I mean — I have no desire. I have no thought of marry- 
ing, and I feel an aversion to company for such an end. In my 
whole life I have never felt less inclined to it. If my disposition 
ran that way, marrying might lead me back to my old life, but 
oh ! that is impossible. To give up, as I have to do, a life which 
has often been my highest aim and hope, is done with a sense 
of responsibility I never imagined before. This, I am conscious, 
is no light thought. It lies deeper than myself, and I have not 
the power to control it. I do not write this with ease ; it is done 
in tears, and I have opened my mind as I have not done before. 
How all this will end I know not, but cannot but trust God. It 
is not my will but my destiny, which will not be one of ease 
and pleasure, but one which I contemplate as a perpetual sacri- 



38 The Life of Father Hecker. 

fice of my past hopes, though of a communion I had never felt. 
Can I adopt a, course of Hfe to increase and fulfil my present life? 
I am unable to give this decision singly. You will, I hope, 
accept this letter in the spirit I have written it. I speak to 
you in a sense I never have spoken to you before. In 
this letter I have opened as far as I could my inmost life. 
My heart is full and I would say a great deal more. Truly, a 
new life has opened to me, and to turn backward would be 
death. Not suddenly has it undergone this change, but it has 
come to that crisis where my decision must be made ; hence am I 
forced to write this letter. For its answer I shall wait with intense 
anxiety. Hoping you will write soon, my love to all. — ISAAC." 

The next letter, though addressed to his brothers, was ap- 
parently intended for the whole family, and begins with more than 
Isaac's customary abruptness : 

*' Chelsea, December 28, 1842. — I will open my mind so that 
you can have the materials to judge from as well as myself I 
feel unable to the task of judging alone correctly. I have given 
an account of my state of mind in my former letter, but will add 
that what is there said describes a permanent state, not a mo- 
mentary excitement. You may think that in a little time this 
would pass away, and I would be able to resume my former 
life ; or, at least, you could so adapt things at home that al- 
though I should not precisely occupy myself as then, still it 
might be so arranged as to give me that which I feel necessary 
in order to live somewhat contented. 

*' I am sorry to say I can in no way conceive such an ar- 
rangement of things at home. Why ? I hate to say it, yet we 
might as well come to an understanding. I have grown out of 
the life which can be received through the accustomed channels 
of the circle that was around me. I am subject to thoughts and 
feelings which the others had no interest in ; hence they could 
not be expressed. There can be no need to tell you this — you 
all must have seen it. How can I stop my life from flowing 
on? You must see the case I stand in. Do not think I have 
less of the feelings of a brother and a son. My heart never 
was closer, not so close as it is now to yours. 

** Do not think this is imagination ; in this I have had too 
much experience. The life that was in me had none to com- 
mune with, and I felt it was consuming me. I tried to express 
this in difTei'cnt wa)'s obscurely, but it appeared singular and no 



Led by the Spirit. 39 



one understood me. This was the cause of my wishing to go 
away, hoping I would either get clear of it or something might 
turn up, I knew not what. One course was advised by the 
doctor, and you all thought as he did — that was to keep com- 
pany with the intention of getting married. This was not the 
communion that I wanted or that was congenial to my life. 
Marrying would not, I am convinced, have had any perma- 
nent effect. It was not that which controlled me, then or now. 
It is altogether different ; it is a life in me which requires 
altogether different circumstances to live it. This is no dream ; 
or, if it is, then have I never had such reality. 

'* When I wrote last it struck me I might secure what I need 
at Brook Farm, but that would depend greatly upon how you 
answer my letter. If you do as perhaps you may, I will go and 
see whether I could be satisfied and how it is, and let you 
know. 

** So far had I written when your letter came. . . . You 
appear to ask this question : What object have you in contem- 
plation ? None further than to live a life agreeable to the mind I 
have J which I feel U7ider a necessity to do'' 

'' Chelsea, December 30, 1842. — To Mother: I am sorry to 
hear that you feel worried. My health is good, I eat and sleep 
well. That my mind is not settled, or as it used to be, is no 
reason to be troubled, for I hope it is not changing for the worse, 
and I look forward to brighter days than we have seen in 
those that are gone. I was conscious my last letter was not 
written in a manner to give you ease ; but to break those old 
habits of our accustomed communion was to me a serious task, 
and done under a sense of duty, to let you know the cause of 
the disease I was supposed to labor under. That is past now, 
and I hope we shall understand each other, and that our fu- 
ture will be smooth and easy. The ice has been broken. That 
caused me some pain but no regret, and instead of feeling sor- 
row, you will, I hope, be contented that I should continue the 
path that will make me better." 

Concerning Isaac Hecker's residence at Brook Farm, which 
was begun about the middle of the following January, we shall 
have more to say hereafter. At present our concern is chiefly 
with those explanations of his conduct and motives which the 
anxieties of his family continually forced him to attempt. There 
is, however, among the papers belonging to this period one 



40 The Life of Father Hecker. 

which, although found with the letters, was evidently so included 
by mistake, and at some later date. It is an outpouring still 
more intimate than he was able to make for the enlightenment of 
others, and is the first vestige of a diary which has been found. 
But it seems plain that his longing for what he continually calls 
"communion," and the effort to divine the will of Providence in his 
regard, must frequently have urged him to that introspective self- 
contemplation so common to natures like his before their time for 
action has arrived. We make some brief extracts from this docu- 
ment which illustrates, still more plainly than any of the letters, 
the fact that the interior pressure to which he was subjected had 
for its uniform tendency and result his vivid realization of the 
Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. It is written in a fine, close 
hand on a sheet of letter-paper, which it entirely covers, and 
bears date January lO, 1843 • 

*' Could I but reveal myself unto myself! What shall I say? 
Is life dear to me ? No. Are my friends dear to me ? I could 
suffer and die for them, if need were, but yet I have none of 
the old attachment for them. I would clasp all to my hearty 
love all for their humanity, but not as relatives or individuals. 
Lord, if I am to be anything, I am, of all, most unfit 
for the task. What shall I do ? Whom shall I cry to but Him 
who has given me life and planted this spirit in me ? Unto 
Thee, then, do I cry from the depths of my soul for light to 
suffer. If there is anything for me to do, why this darkness all 
around me ? I ask not to be happy. I will forego, as I always 
had a presentiment I must do, all hopes which young men of 
my age are prone to picture in their minds. If only I could have 
a ray of light on my present condition ! O Lord ! open my 
eyes to see the path Thou wouldst have me walk in. . . . 

"Jan. II. — True life is one continuous prayer, one unceasing 
aspiration after the holy. I have no conception of a life insen- 
sible to that which is not above itself, lofty. I would not take 
it on myself to say I have been * born again,' but I know that 
I have passed from death to life. Things below have no hold 
upon me further than as they lead to things above. It is not a 
moral restraint that I have over myself, but it is such a change, 
a conversion of my whole being, that I have no need of restraint. 
Temptations still beset me — not sensual, but of a kind which 
seek to make mc untrue to my life. If I am not on my guard 
I become cold. May I always be humble, meek, prayerful, open 



Led by the Spirit. 41 



to all men. Light, love, and life God is always giving, but we 
turn our backs and will not receive. 

" Who can measure the depths of Christ's suffering — alone in 
the world, having that which would give life everlasting, a heaven, 
to those who would receive it, and yet despised, spit upon, re- 
jected of men ! Oh ! how sweet must it have been to His soul 
when He found even one who would accept a portion of that 
precious gift which He came to the world to bestow ! Well 
could He say, ' Father, forgive them ; they know not what they 
do.' He would give them life, but they would not receive. He 
would save them, but they rejected Him. He loved them, and 
they despised Him. Alas ! who has measured even in a small 
degree the love of Christ and yet denied His superiority over 
man ! His love, goodness, mercy are unbounded. O Lord ! may 
I daily come into closer communion with Thy Son, Jesus 
Christ." 

On the 22d of February he addresses both of his parents in 
reply to a letter sent by his brother John, detailing some of 
their troubles on this head. He writes : 

" It is as great a difficulty for me to reconcile my being 
here with my sense of duty towards you. . . . Since I must 
speak, let me tell you that I have at present no disposition to 
return. Neither are the circumstances that surround me now 
those which will give me contentment ; but I feel that I am 
here as a temporary place, and that by spring something will 
turn up which I hope will be for the happiness of us all. What 
it will be I have not the least idea of now. It is as impossible 
for me to give you an explanation of that which has led me of 
late as it would be for a stranger. All before me is dark, even 
as that is which leads me now and has led me before. One 
sentiment I have which I feel I cannot impart to you. It is that 
I am controlled. Formerly I could act from intention, but now 
I have no future to design, nothing in prospect, and viy present 
action is from a present canse, not from any past. Hence it is 
that while my action may appear to others as designed, to me 
it is unlooked-for and unaccountable. I do not expect that 
others can feel this as I do. I am tossed about in a sea without 
a rudder. W^hat drives me onward, and where I shall be driven, 
is to me unknown. My past life seems to me like that of an- 
other person, and my present is like a dream. W^here am I ? 
I know not. I have no power over my present, I do not even 



42 The Life of Father Hecker. 

know what it is. Whom can I find like myself, whom can I 
speak to that will understand me ? 

'' This makes me still, lonely ; and I cannot wish myself out 
of this state. I have no will to do that — not that I have any 
desire to. All I can say is that I am in it. What would be the 
effect of necessity on me, I know not, whether it would lead me 
back or lead me on. My feeling of duty towards you is a con- 
tinual weight upon me which I cannot throw off — it is best, 
perhaps, that I cannot. All appears to me as a seeming, not a 
reality. Nothing touches that life in me which is seeking that 
which I know not." 

To George Hecker. — ''Brook Farm, March 6, 1843. — What 
was the reason of my going, or -what made me go? The reason 
I am not able to tell. But what I felt was a dark, irresistible 
influence upon me that led me away from home. What it was 
I know not. What keeps me here I cannot tell. It is only 
when I struggle against it that a spell comes over me. If I 
give up to it, nothing is the matter with me. But when I look 
to my past, my duty toward you all, and consider what this 
may lead me to, and then attempt to return, I get into a state 
which I cannot speak of. . . . 

'* By attempt to return I mean an attempt to return to my 
old life, for so I have to call it — that is, to 'get clear of this 
influence. And yet I have no will to will against it. I do not 
desire it, or its mode of living, and I am opposed to its tendency. 

" What bearing this has upon the question of my comJng 
home you will perceive. As soon as I can come, I will. If I 
should do so now, it would throw me back to the place from 
which I started. Is this fancy on my part ? All I can say is 
that if so the last nine or ten months of my life have been a 
fancy which is too deep for me to control." 

After paying his family a visit in April, he writes to them 
on his return : 

'' Brook Farm, -April 14, 1843. — Here I am alone in my room 
once more. I feel settled, and begin to live again, separated 
from everything but my studies and thoughts, and the feeling of 
gratitude toward you all lor treating me so much better than I 
am aware of ever having treated you. May I ever keep this 
sense of obligation and indebtedness. My prayer is, that the life 
I have been led to live these few months back may prove to 
the advantage of us all in the end. I sometimes feel guilty 



Led by the Spirit. 43 



because I did not attempt again to try and labor with you. 
But the power that kept me back, its hold upon me, its strength 
over me, all that I am unable to communicate, makes my situa- 
tion appear strange to others, and to myself irreconcilable with 
my former state. Still, I trust that, in a short period, all things 
will take their peaceful and orderly course." 

To George Hecker. — ''Brook Farm, May 12, 1843. — How 
much nearer to you I feel on account of your good letter you 
cannot estimate — nearer than when we slept in the same bed. 
Nearness of body is no evidence of the distance between souls, 
for I imagine Christ loved His mother very tenderly when He 
said, ' Woman, what have I to do w^ith thee ? ' " 

"I have felt, time and again, that either I would have to 
give up the life that was struggling in me, or withdraw from 
business in the way that we pursue it. This I had long felt, 
before the period came w^hich suddenly threw me involuntarily 
out of it. Here I am, living in the present, without a why or 
a wherefore, trusting that something w^ill shape my course intelli- 
gibly. I am completely without object. And when occasionally 
I emerge, if I may so speak, into actual life, I feel that I have 
dissipated time. A sense of guilt accompanies that of pleasure, 
and I return inwardly into a deeper, intenser life, breaking those 
tender roots which held me fast for a short period to the out- 
ward. In study only do I enter with wholeness ; nothing else 
appears to take hold of my hfe." . . . ** I am staying here, 
intentionally, for a short period. When the time arrives " (for 
leaving) ^' heaven knows what I may do. I am now perfectly 
dumb before it. Perhaps I m^ay return and enter into business 
with more perseverance and industry than before ; perhaps I may 
stay here ; it may be that I shall be led elsewhere. But there 
is no utility in speculating on the future. If we lived as we 
should, w^e would feel that we lived in the presence of God, 
without past or future, having a full consciousness of existence, 
living the * eternal life.' ... 

" George, do not get too engrossed with outward business. 
Rather neglect a part of it for that w^hich is immortal in its life, 
incomparable in its fulness. It is a deep, important truth : ' Seek 
first the kingdom of God, and then all things will be added.' 
In having nothing we have all." 

To Mrs. Hecker. — ''Brook Farm, May 16, 1843. — Dear 
Mother : You will not take it unkind, my not writing to you 



44 The Life of Father Hecker. 

before ? I am sure you will not, for you know what I am. 
Daily I feel more and more indebted to you for my life, espe- 
cially when I feel happy and good. How can I repay you ? As 
you, no doubt, would wish me to — by becoming better and living 
as you have desired and prayed that I should, which I trust, by 
Divine assistance, I may. 

*' Mother, I cannot express the depth of gratitude I feel 
toward you for the tender care and loving discipline with which 
you brought me up to manhood. Without it, oh ! what might I 
not have been ? The good that I have, under God, I am con- 
scious that I am greatly indebted to thee for ; at times I feel that 
it is thou acting in me, and that there is nothing that can ever 
separate us. A bond which is as eternal as our immortality, our 
life, binds us together and cannot be broken. 

** Mother, that I should be away from home at present no 
doubt makes you sorrowful often, and you wish me back. Let me 
tell you how it is with me. The life which surrounds me in New 
York oppresses me, contracts my feelings, and abridges my liberty. 
Business, as it is now pursued, is a burden upon my spiritual life, 
and all its influence hurtful to the growth of a better life. This I 
have felt for a long time, and feel it now more intensely than 
before. And the society I had there was not such as benefited 
me. My life was not increased by theirs, and I was gradually 
ceasing to be. I was lonely, friendless, and without object in this 
world, while at the same time I was conscious of a greater degree 
of activity of mind in another direction. These causes still 
remain. , . . 

" ... I feel fully conscious of the importance of making 
any change in my life at my present age — giving up those ad- 
vantages which so many desire ; as well as the necessity of 
being considerate, prudent, and slow to decide. I am aware that 
my future state here, and hence hereafter, will greatly depend 
upon the steps I now take, and therefore I would do nothing 
unadvised or hastily. I would not sacrifice eternal for worldly life. 
At present I wish to live a true life, desiring nothing external, 
seeing that things external cannot procure those things for and in 
which I live. I do not renounce things, but feel no inclination for 
them. All is indifferent to me — poverty or riches, life or death. 
I am loosed. But do not on this account think I am sorrowful ; 
nay, for I have nothing to sorrow for. Is there no bright hope at 
a distance which cheers me onward and beckons me to speed ? 



Led by the Spi?'it. 



45 



I dare not say. Sometimes I feel so — it is the unutterable. Yet I 
remain contented to be without spring or autumn, youth or age. 
One tie has been loosened after another; the dreams of my youth 
have passed away silently, and the visions of the future I then 
beheld have vanished. I feel awakened as from a dream, and 
like a shadow has my past gone by. With the verse at the bot- 
tom of the picture you gave me, I can say : 

'* ' Oh ! days that once I used to prize, 
Are ye for ever gone ? 
The veil is taken from my eyes, 
And now I stand alone.' 

" But I would not recall those by-gone days, nor do I stand 
alone. No ! Out from this life will spring a higher world, of 
which the past was but a weak, faint shadow." 




CHAPTER V. 

AT BROOK FARM. 

THE famous though short-lived community at West Roxbury, 
Massachusetts, where Isaac Hecker made his first trial of the 
common life, was started in the spring of 1841 by George Ripley 
and his wife, Nathaniel Hav/thorne, John S. Dwight, George P. 
Bradford, Sarah Sterns, a niece of George Ripley's, Marianne 
Ripley, his sister, and four or five others whose names we do 
not know. In September of the same year they were joined by 
Charles A. Dana, nov/ of the New York Sun. Hawthorne's 
residence at the Farm, commemorated in the Blithedale Ro- 
mance, had terminated before Mr. Dana's began. The Curtis 
brothers, Burrill and George William, were there when Isaac 
Hecker came. Emerson was an occasional visitor ; so was Mar- 
garet Fuller. Bronson Olcott, then cogitating his own ephem- 
eral experiment at Fruitlands, sometimes descended on the gay 
community and was doubtless '* Orphic " at his leisure. 

The association was the outcome of many discussions which 
had taken place at Mr. Ripley's house in Boston during the 
winter of 1840-41. Among the prominent Bostonians who took 
part in these informal talks were Theodore Parker, Adin Ballou, 
Samuel Robbins, John S. Dwight, Warren Burton, and Orestes 
Brownson. Each of these men, and, if we do not mistake, 
George Ripley also, presided at the time over some religious 
body. Mr. Ballou, who was a Universahst minister of much 
local renown, was, perhaps, the only exception to the prevailing 
Unitarian complexion of the assembly. 

The object of their discussions seems to have been, in a 
general way, the necessity for some social reform which should 
go to the root of the commercial spirit and the contempt for 
certain kinds of labor so widely prevalent ; and, in a special 
way, the feasibility of establishing at once, on however small a 
scale, a co-operative experiment in family life, having for its 
ulterior aim the reorganization of society on a less selfish basis. 
They probably considered that, a beginning once made by 
people of their stamp, the influence of their example would 
work as a quickening leaven. They hoped to be the mustard- 
seed which, planted in a congenial soil, would grow into a tree 

in whose branches all the birds of the air might dwell. It was 

46 




Tlie Young Transcencientfeilist. 

(From a daguerreotype.) 



At Brook Farm. 47 



the initial misfortune of the Brook-Farmers to estabHsh themselves 
on a picturesque but gravelly and uncongenial soil, whose poverty 
went very far toward compassing the collapse of their undertaking. 

Not all of the ministers whose names have just been men- 
tioned were of one mind, either as to the special evils to be 
counteracted or the remedies which might be tentatively applied. 
Three different associations took their rise from among this hand- 
ful of earnest seekers after better social methods. Mr. Ballou, 
who headed one of these, believed that unity and cohesion could 
be most surely obtained by a frank avowal of beliefs, aims, and 
practices, to which all present and future associates would be 
expected to conform. Mrs. Kirby, whose interesting volume * 
we have already quoted, says that the platform of this party 
bound them to abolitionism, anti-orthodoxy, women's rights, 
total abstinence, and opposition to war. They established them- 
selves at Hopedale, Massachusetts, where, so far as our knowledge 
goes, some vestige of them may still remain, though the analo- 
gies and probabihties are all against such a survival. A second 
band of " come-outers," as people used to be called in that day 
and region, when they abandoned the common road for reasons 
not obviously compulsory, went to Northampton in the same 
State, and from there into corporate obscurity. 

Mr. Ripley's scheme was more elastic, and if the money 
basis of the association had been more solid, there seems no 
reason on the face of things why this community at Brook 
Farm might not have enjoyed a much longer lease of Hfe. It 
seems to have left a most pleasant memory in the minds of 
all who were ever members of it. In matters of belief 
and of opinion no hard-and-fast lines were drawn at any 
point. In nlatters of conduct, the morality of self-respecting 
New-Englanders who were at a farther remove from Puritanic 
creeds than from Puritanic discipline, was regarded as a sufficient 
guarantee of social decorum. Of the earliest additions to the 
co-operative household, a sprinkling were already Catholic ; 
others, including the wife and the niece of the founder, after- 
wards became so. Some attended orthodox Protestant churches ; 
the majority were probably Unitarians. Discussion on all sub- 
jects appears to have been free, frank, and good-tempered. 

There was no attempt made at any communism except that 
of intellectual and social gifts and privileges. There was a 

* Years of Exp enevce. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1887. 



4^ The Life of Father Hecker. 

common table, and Mrs. Kirby has given us some attractive 
glimpses of the good feeling, and kindly gayety, and practical 
observance of the precept to " bear one another's burdens " 
which came into play around it. For many months, as no one 
could endure to have his equal serve him, and all were equals, 
there was a constant getting up and down at table so that each 
might help himself Afterwards, when decline had already set 
in, so far as the material basis of the undertaking was con- 
cerned, and those who had its success most at heart had begun 
to study Fourier for fruitful suggestions, the first practical hint 
from that quarter resulted in Mr. Dana's organizing *' a group 
of servitors." These, writes Mrs. Kirby, * comprised " four 
of the most elegant youths at the community — the son 
of a Louisiana planter, a young Spanish hidalgo, a rudimen- 
tary Free-Soiler from Hingham, and, if I remember rightly, 
Edward Barlow (the brother of Francis). These, with one 
accord, elected as chief their handsome and beloved teacher. It 
is hardly necessary to observe that the business was henceforth 
attended to with such courtly grace and such promptness that 
the new regUne was applauded by every one, although it did 
appear at first as if we were all engaged in acting a play. The 
group, with their admired chief, took dinner, which had been 
kept warm for them, afterwards, and were themselves waited 
upon with the utmost consideration, but I confess I never could 
get accustomed to the new regulation." 

The watchword of the place was fraternity, not communism. 
People took up residence at Brook Farm on different terms. 
Some paid a stipulated board, and thus freed themselves from any 
obligatory share in either domestic or out-door labor. Others 
contributed smaller sums and worked out the balance. Some 
gave labor only, as was the case with Mrs. Kirby, then Georgi- 
ana Bruce, an English girl of strong character. She says she 
agreed to work eight hours a day for her board and instruction 
in any branches of study which she elected to pursue. As an 
illustration of the actual poverty to which the community were 
soon reduced, and, moreover, of the low money value they set on 
domestic labor, we give another characteristic passage from her 
book. The price of full board, as we learn from a bill sent by 
Mr. Ripley to Isaac Hecker after the latter's final departure from 
the Farm, was five dollars and fifty cents a week ; 

* Years of Experience, pp. 178, 179. 



At Brook Farm. 49 



** When a year had elapsed I found my purse empty and my 
wardrobe much the worse for wear. As I was known to be 
heartily interested in the new movement, my case was taken 
under consideration, and, with the understanding that I was to 
add two more hours to my working day, I was admitted as 
bona-fide member of the association (which included only a dozen), 
and was allowed to draw on the treasury for my very moderate 
necessities. Forty dollars a year would cover these, writing- 
paper and postage included. The last item was no unimportant 
one, as each letter cost from ten to fifty cents, and money 
counted for more then than now. 

" I should explain that for the whole of one winter there 
remained but two bonnets fit for city eyes among six of us. 
But the best of these was forced on whomever was going to 
town. As for best dresses, a twenty-five cent delaine was held 
to be gorgeous apparel. The gentlemen had found it desirable 
to adopt a tunic in place of the more expensive, old-world coat" * 

The income of the association was derived from various 
sources other than the prices paid for board. There was a school 
for young children, presided over by Mrs. Ripley, assisted by 
various pupil- teachers, who thus partially recompensed the com- 
munity for their own support. Fruit, milk, and vegetables, when 
there were any to spare, were sent to the Boston markets Now 
and then some benevolent philanthropist with means would make 
a donation. No one who entered was expected to contribute his 
whole income to the general purse, unless such income would not 
more than cover the actual expense incurred for him. When 
Isaac Hecker went to West Roxbury the establishment included 
seventy inmates, who were distributed in several buildings bear- 
ing such poetical names as the Hive, the Eyrie, the Nest, and 
so on. The number rose to ninety or a hundred before he left 
them, but the additions seem occasionally to have been in the 
nature of subtractions also, taking away more of the cultivation, 
refinement, and general good feeling which had been the distin- 
guishing character of the place, than they added by their money 
or their labor. 

Isaac Hecker was never an actual member of that inner com- 
munity of whose aspirations and convictions the Farm was in- 
tended as an embodiment. He entered at first as a partial 
boarder, paying four dollars a week, and undertaking also the 

* Years of Experience, p. 132. 



50 The Life of Father Hecker. 

bread-making, which until then had been very badly done, as he 
writes to his mother. It should be understood that whatever was 
received from any inmate, either in money or labor, was accepted 
not as a mere return for food and shelter, but as an equivalent 
for such instruction as could be imparted by any other member 
of the collective family. And there were many competent and 
brilliant men and women there, whose attainments not only quali- 
fied them amply for the tasks they then assumed, but have since 
made them prominent in American letters and journalism. Mr. 
Ripley lectured on modern philosophy to all who desired an 
acquaintance with Spinoza, Kant, Cousin, and their compeers. 
George P. Bradford was a thorough classical scholar. Charles A. 
Dana, then fresh from Harvard, was an enthusiast for German 
literature, and successful in imparting both knowledge and en- 
thusiasm to his pupils. There were classes in almost everything 
that any one cared to study. French and music, as we learn 
from one of Isaac's letters home, were what he set himself to at 
the first. The latter was taught by so accomplished a master as 
John S. Dwight, who conducted weekly singing-schools for both 
children and adults. 

To what other studies Isaac may have applied himself we 
hardly know. It will be noticed that Mr. George Wilham Curtis, 
in the kindly reminiscences which he permits us to embody in 
this chapter, says that he does not remember him as " especially 
studious." The remark tallies with the impression we have 
gathered from the journal kept while he was there. His mind 
was introverted. Philosophical questions, then as always, interested 
him profoundly, but only in so far as they led to practical results. 
It might be truer to say that philosophy was at no time more 
than the handmaid of theology to him. At this period he was 
in the thick of his struggle to attain certainty with regard to the 
nature and extent of the Christian revelation, and what he sought 
at Brook Farm was the leisure and quiet and opportunity for 
solitude which could not be his at home. *' Lead me into Thy 
holy Church, which I now am seeking," he writes as the final 
petition of the prayer with which the first bulky volume of his 
diary opens. With the burden of that search upon him, it was 
not possible for such a nature as his to plunge with the unreserve 
which is the condition of success into any study which had no 
direct reference to it. We find him complaining at frequent in- 
tervals that he cannot give his studies the attention they demand. 



At Brook Farm. 51 



Nor were his labors as the community baker of long continuance. 
They left him too little time at his own disposal, and in a short 
time he became a full boarder, and occupied himself only as his 
inclinations directed. 

It may occur to some of our readers to wonder why 
a man like Brownson, who was then fast nearing the certainty 
he afterwards attained, should have sent a youth like Isaac 
Hecker to Brook Farm. It must be remembered that Brown- 
son's road to the Church was not so direct as that of his young 
disciple, nor so entirely free in all its stages from self-crippling 
considerations. As we shall presently see, by an abstract of one 
of his sermons, preached in the spring of 1843, which was made 
by Isaac Hecker at the time, Brownson thought it possible to 
hold all Catholic truth and yet defer entering the Church until 
she should so far abate her claims as to form a friendly alliance 
with orthodox Protestantism on terms not too distasteful to the 
latter. He w^as not yet willing to depart alone, and hoped by wait- 
ing to take others with him, and he was neither ready to renounce 
wholly his private views, nor to counsel such a step to young 
Hecker. He w^as in harmony, moreover, with the tolerant and 
liberal tendency which influenced the leading spirits at Brook 
Farm. Although he never became one of the community, he 
had sent his son Orestes there as a pupil, and was a frequent 
visitor himself Their aims, as expressed in a passage which we 
subjoin from The Dial of January, 1842, were assuredly such as 
would approve themselves to persons who fully accepted what 
they believed to be the social teaching of our Lord, but who 
had not attained to any true conception of the Divine authority 
which clothes that teaching : 

" Whoever is satisfied with society as it is ; whose sense of 
justice is not wounded by its common action, institutions, spirit 
of commerce, has no business with this community ; neither has 
any one who is willing to have other men (needing more time 
for intellectual cultivation than himself) give their best hours and 
strength to bodily labor to secure himself immunity therefrom. 
. . . Everything can be said of it, in a degree, which Christ 
said of His kingdom, and therefore it is believed that in some 
measure it does embody His idea. For its Gate of Entrance is 
strait and narrow. It is, literally, a pearl hidden in a field. 
Those only who are willing to lose their life for its sake shall 
find it. ■ . . . Those who have not the faith that the princi- 



$2 The Life of Father Hecker. 

pies of Christ's kingdom are applicable to this world, will smile 
at it as a visionary attempt." 

Brook Farm has an interest for Catholics because, in the 
order of guileless nature, it was the preamble of that common 
life which Isaac Hecker afterwards enjoyed in its supernatural 
reaHzation in the Church. It was a protest against that selfish- 
ness of the individual which is highly accentuated in a large 
class of New-En glanders, and prodigiously developed in the 
economical conditions of modern society. Against these Isaac 
had revolted in New York ; at Brook Farm he hoped to find 
their remedy. And in fact the gentle reformers, as we may 
call these West Roxbury adventurers into the unexplored 
regions of the common life, were worthy of their task though 
not equal to it. There is no doubt that in small numbers and 
with a partial surrender of individual prerogatives, well-meaning 
men and women may taste many of the good things and be 
able to bear some of the hardships of the common life. But to 
compass in permanent form its aspirations in this direction, as 
in many others, nature is incompetent. The terrible if wonderful 
success of Sparta is what can be attained, and tells at what cost.. 
The economy of the bee-hive, which kills or drives away its 
superfluous members, and the polity of Sparta, which put the 
cripples and the aged to death, are essential to permanent suc- 
cess in the venture of communism in the natural order. *' Sweet- 
ness and light " are enjoyed by the few only at the sacrifice of 
the unwholesome and burdensome members of the hive. 

Brook Farm, however, was not conceived in any spirit of 
cruelty or of contempt of the weaker members of humanity ; the 
very contrary was the case. Sin and feebleness were capable, 
thought its founders, of elimination by the force of natural virtue. 
The men and women who gathered there in its first years were 
noble of their kind; and their kind, now much less frequently 
met with, was the finest product of natural manhood. Of the 
channels of information which reach us from Brook Farm, and 
we believe we have had access to them all, none contains the 
sHghtest evidence of sensuality, the least trace of the selfishness 
of the world, or even any sign of the extravagances of spiritual 
pride. There is, on the other hand, a full acknowledgment of 
the ordinary f[iilings of unpretentious good people. Nor do we 
mean to say that they were purely in the natural order — who 
can be said to be that? They were the descendants of the 



At Brook Farm. 53 



baptized Puritans whose religious fervor had been for genera- 
tions at white heat. They had, indeed, cut the root, but the 
sap of Christian principle still lingered in the trunk and branches 
and brought forth fruit which was supernatural, though destined 
never to ripen. 

Christ was the model of the Brook-Farmers, as He had 
become that of Isaac Keeker. They did not know Hi7n as well 
as they knew His doctrine. They knew better what He said 
than why He said it, and that defect obscured His meaning and 
mystified their understandings. That all men were brethren was 
the result of their study of humanity under what they conceived 
to be His leadership ; that all labor is honorable, and entitled to 
equal remuneration, was their solution of the social problem. 
While any man was superfluously rich, they maintained, no man 
should be miserably poor. They were reaching after what the 
best spirits of the human race were then and now longing for, 
and they succeeded as well as any can who employ only the 
selvage of the Christian garment to protect themselves against 
the rigors of nature. Saint- Simon was a far less worthy man than 
George Ripley, but he failed no more signally. Frederic Oza- 
nam, whose ambition was limited in its scope by his appre- 
ciation of both nature and the supernatural, succeeded in estab- 
lishing a measure of true fraternity between rich and poor 
throughout the Catholic world. 

There can be no manner of doubt that although Father 
Hecker in after life could good-naturedly smile at the singu- 
larities of Brook Farm, what he saw and was taught there had 
a strong and permanent effect on his character. It is little to 
say that the^ influence was refining to him, for he was refined 
by nature. But he gained what was to him a constant corrective 
of any tendency to man-hatred in all its degrees, not needed by 
himself, to be sure, but always needed in his dealing with others. 
It gave to a naturally trustful disposition the vim and vigor of 
an apostolate for a cheerful view of human nature. It was a 
characteristic trait of his to expect good results from reliance 
on human virtue, and his whole success as a persuader of men 
was largely to be explained by the subtle flattery of this trust- 
ful attitude towards them. At Brook Farm the mind of Isaac 
Hecker was eagerly looking for instruction. It failed to get even 
a little clear light on the more perplexing problems of life, but 
it got something better — the object-lesson of good men and 



54 The Life of Father Hecker. 

women struggling nobly and unselfishly for laudable ends. Brook 
Farm was an attempt to remove obstructions from the pathway of 
human progress, taking that word in the natural sense. 

Even afterwards, when he had known human destiny in its 
perfect supernatural and natural forms, and when the means to 
compass it were in his possession and plainly competent for suc- 
cess, his memory reproduced the scenes and persons of Brook 
Farm in an atmosphere of affection and admiration, though not 
unmingled with amusement. He used not infrequently to quote 
words heard there, and cite examples of things done there, as 
lessons of wisdom not only for the philosopher but also for the 
ascetic. He was there equipped with the necessary external 
guarantee of his inner consciousness that man is good, because 
made so by his Creator — inclined indeed to evil, but yet a good 
being, even so inclined. Nothing is more necessary for one who 
is to be a teacher among a population whose Catholicity is of 
blood and family tradition as well as of grace, than to know that 
there is virtue, true and high in its own order, outside the visible 
pale of the Church. Especially is this necessary if Catholics in 
any age or country are to be fitted for a missionary vocation. 
That this is the vocation of the Church of his day was Isaac 
Hecker's passionate conviction. He was able to communicate 
this to Catholics of the old stock as well as to influence non- 
Catholics in favor of the Church ; perhaps even more so. More 
than anything else, indeed, Brook Farm taught him the defect 
of human nature on its highest plane ; but it taught him also the 
worthiness of the men and women of America of the apostle's toil 
and blood. The gentle natures whom he there knew and learned 
to love, their spirit of self-sacrifice for the common good, their 
minds at once innocent and cultivated, their devotion to their 
high ideal, the absence of meanness, coarseness, vulgarity, the 
sinking of private ambitions, the patience with the defects of others, 
their desire to establish the communism of at least intellectual 
gifts — all this and much more of the kind fixed his views and affec- 
tions in a mould which eminently fitted him as a vessel of election 
for apostolic uses. 

Before passing to the study of Isaac Hecker's own interior 
during the period of his residence at Brook Farm, it is our pleasant 
privilege to communicate to our readers the subjoined charming 
reminiscence of his personality at the time, from one who was his 
associate there : 



At Brook Farm. 55 



" West Neiv Brighton, S. /., February 28, 1890. — Dear Sir : I 
fear that my recollections of Father Hecker will be of little service 
to you, for they are very scant. But the impression of the young 
man whom I knew at Brook Farm is still vivid. It must have 
been in the year 1843 that he came to the Farm in West Roxbury, 
near Boston. He was a youth of twenty-three, of German aspect, 
and I think his face was somewhat seamed with small-pox. But his 
sweet and candid expression, his gentle and affectionate manner, 
were very winning. He had an air of singular refinement and 
self-reliance combined with a half-eager inquisitiveness, and upon 
becoming acquainted with him, I told him that he was Ernest 
the Seeker, which was the title of a story of mental* unrest which 
William Henry Channing was then publishing in the Diczl. 

" Hecker, or, as I always called him and think of him, Isaac, 
had apparently come to Brook Farm because it was a result of 
the intellectual agitation of the time which had reached and 
touched him in New York. He had been bred a baker, he told 
me, and I remember with what satisfaction he said to me, ' I 
am sure of my livelihood because I can make good bread.' His 
powers in this way were most satisfactorily tested at the Farm, 
or, as it was generally called, * the Community,' although it was 
in no other sense a community than an association of friendly 
workers in common. He was dravv^n to Brook Farm by the 
belief that its life would be at least agreeable to his convictions and 
tastes, and offer him the society of those who might answer some 
of his questions, even if they could not satisfy his longings. 

*'By what influences his mind was first affected by the moral 
movement known in New England as transcendentalism, I do not 
know. Probably he may have heard Mr. Emerson lecture in New 
York, or he may have read Brownson's Charles Elwood, which 
dealt with the questions that engaged his mind and conscience. 
But among the many interesting figures at Brook Farm I recall 
none more sincerely absorbed than Isaac Hecker in serious ques- 
tions. Thelnerely aesthetic aspects of its life, its gayety and social 
pleasures, he regarded good-naturedly, with the air of a spectator 
who tolerated rather than needed or enjoyed them. There was 
nothing ascetic or severe in him, but I have often thought since that 
his feeling was probably what he might have afterward described 
as a consciousness that he must be about his Father's business. 

** I do not remember him as especially studious. Mr. Ripley 
had classes in German philosophy and metaphysics, in Kant and 
Spinoza, and Isaac used to look in, as he turned wherever he 
thought he might find answers to his questions. He went to hear 
Theodore Parker preach in the Unitarian Church in the neigh- 
boring village of West Roxbury. He went into Boston, about 
ten miles distant, to talk with Brownson, and to Concord to see 
Emerson. He entered into the working life at the Farm, but 



56 The Life of Father Hecker. 

always, as it seemed to me, with the same reserve and attitude 
of observation. He was the dove floating in the air, not yet 
finding the spot on which his foot might rest. 

"" The impression that I gathered from my intercourse with 
him, which was boyishly intimate and affectionate, was that of 
all * the apostles of the newness,' as they were gayly called, whose 
counsel he sought, Brownson was the most satisfactory to him. 
T thought then that this was due to the authority of Brownson's 
masterful tone, the definiteness of his views, the force of his 
' understanding,' as the word was then philosophically used in 
distinction from the reason. Brownson's mental vigor and posi- 
tiveness were' very agreeable to a candid mind which was specu- 
latively adrift and experimenting, and, as it seemed to me, which 
was more emotional than logical. Brownson, after his life of varied 
theological and controversial activity, was drawing toward the 
Catholic Church, and his virile force fascinated the more dehcate 
and sensitive temper of the young man, and, I have always sup- 
posed, was the chief influence which at that time affected Hecker's 
views, although he did not then enter the Catholic Church. 

" He was a general favorite at Brook Farm, always equable 
and playful, wholly simple and frank in manner. He talked 
readily and easily, but not controversially. His smile was singu- 
larly attractive and sympathetic, and the earnestness of which I 
have spoken gave him an unconscious personal dignity. His 
temperament was sanguine. The whole air of the youth was that 
of goodness. I do not think that the impression made by him 
forecast his career, or, in any degree, the leadership which he 
afterwards held in his Church. But everybody who knew him at 
that time must recall his charming amiability. 

"■ I think that he did not remain at Brook Farm for a whole 
year, and when later he went to Belgium to study theology at 
the seminary of Mons he wrote me many letters, which I am 
sorry to say have disappeared. I remember that he labored with 
friendly zeal to draw me to his Church, and at his request I read 
the life and some writing of St. Alphonse of Liguori. Gradually 
our correspondence decHned when I was in Europe, and was never 
resumed ; nor do I remember seeing him again more than once, 
many years ago. There was still in the clerical figure, which was 
very strange to me, the old sweetness of smile and address ; 
there was some talk of the idyllic days, some warm words of 
hearty good will, but our interests were very different, and, parting, 
we went our separate ways. For a generation we lived in the 
same city, yet we never met. But I do not lose the bright recol- 
lection of Ernest the Seeker, nor forget the frank, ardent, gener- 
ous, manly youth, Isaac Hecker. 

" Very truly yours, 

*' George William Curtis." 



CHAPTER VI. 

INNER LIFE WHILE AT BROOK FARM. 

THE private journals from which we are about to quote so 
largely were an unhoped-for addition to the stock of materials 
available for Father Hecker's biography. Until after his death 
not even their existence, still less the nature of their contents, 
was suspected. With the exception of two important docu- 
ments, one written while he was in Belgium, in obedience to 
the requirements of his director ; the other in Rome, for the 
consideration of the four venerable religious whose advice he 
sought before founding his community, no records of his in- 
terior life have been discovered which are at all comparable in 
fulness to those made during the eighteen months which pre- 
ceded his admission to the Church. In his years of health and 
strength he lived and worked for others ; and in those weary 
ones of illness which followed them, he thought and wrote and 
suffered, but apparently without making any deliberate notes of 
his deeper personal experience. 

On those of our readers whose acquaintance with Father 
Hecker dates, as our own does, from his intensely active and 
laborious prime, these revelations of the period when he was 
being passively wrought upon and shaped for his work by 
the hand of God, may produce an effect not unlike that we 
have been conscious of in studying the greater mass from which 
our extracts are taken. They will, perhaps, be struck, in the 
first place, by the unexpectedly strong witness they bear to 
the wholly^ interior and mystical experience of the man. They 
testify, moreover, to the real and objective character of that 
leading- which he was constrained to follow ; and not only 
that. They do so in a way which furnishes a convincing reply 
to a very plausible doubt as to whether the narrow and uncon- 
genial surroundings of his early life might not, by themselves, 
be sufficient to explain the discontent of a poetic and aspiring 
nature such as his. 

He was at Brook Farm when that community was at 
its pleasantest. The shadow of care and the premonition of 
failure were, indeed, already looming up before those who bore 
the chief responsibilities of the undertaking, but the group by 
virtue of whose presence it became famous had hardly begun 



5 8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

to dwindle. And besides those whose names have since become 
well known, there were others, young, gay, intelligent, and well 
bred, acquaintance and familiarity with whom were in many ways 
attractive to a susceptible youth like Isaac Hecker. What im- 
pression he made upon the circle he entered, how cordially he 
was received and held in high esteem, our readers already 
know. And if he gave pleasure, he received it also. At first 
the new circumstances were a little strange and embarrassing to 
him. After a fortnight, or thereabouts, we find him noting that 
he is *' not one cf their spirits. They say ' Mr. Hecker ' in 
a tone they do not use in speaking to each other." But the 
strangeness soon wore off, and he yielded to the influence of the 
place with a wholeness which would have been entire but for 
the stronger drawing which never let him free. 

On this point, too, the witness of the journal is peremptory. 
So it is as to the unity and consistence of his interior experi- 
ences from first to last. Child, and boy, and man, there was 
always the same ardent sincerity of purpose in him, the same 
docility to the Voice that spoke within, the same attitude to- 
ward *' the life that now is " which Mr. Curtis, in the letter 
given in the preceding chapter, has described, with so fine an 
insight, as one of reserve and observation. " He was the dove 
floating in the air, not yet finding the spot on which his foot 
might rest," writes Mr. Curtis of Isaac Hecker at that period 
of his youth when his surroundings and companions were for 
the first time, and very possibly for the last, wholly congenial 
to his natural inclinations. And again : ** There was nothing 
ascetic or severe in him ; but I have often thought since that 
his feeling was probably what he might have afterward de- 
scribed as a consciousness that he must be about his Father's 
business." 

These words are significant testimony to the nobility of the 
impression made on others by Father Hecker's personality in 
early manhood. Even if our only addition to such scanty 
knowledge of his life at Brook Farm as could be gathered frorn 
his own conversations in later years were this happily- touched 
sketch, it could hardly be more interesting than it is. But, fortu- 
nately, it does not stand alone. Its fine recognition of the lofty 
purity of his nature is everywhere borne out by the unpremedi- 
tated and candid self-revelations of the diary. Their character- 
istic trait is everywhere aspiration — a sense of joy in elevation 



Inner Life while at Brook Farm. 59 

above the earthly, or a sense of depression because the earthly 
weighs him down. Then come eager glances of inquiry in 
every direction for the satisfaction of his aspirations, little by lit- 
tle narrowing down to the Catholic Church, wherein the dove of 
Mr. Curtis's image was finally to rest his foot for ever. And in 
all this he scarcely at all mentions a dread of the Divine wrath 
as a motive for his flight. It is not out of the city of destruction, 
but toward the celestial city that he goes. He is drawn by 
what he wants, not hounded by what he fears. Always there is 
the reaching out of a strong nature toward what it lacks — a 
material for its strength to work on, a craving for rational joy, 
coupled with an ever-increasing conviction that nature cannot 
give him such a boon. Men who knew Father Hecker only in 
his royal maturity, sometimes cavilled at his words of emphatic 
faith in guileless nature ; but they had only to know him a 
little better to learn his appreciation of the supernatural order, 
and his recognition of its absolute and exclusive competency to 
satisfy nature's highest aspirations. Reading these early journals, 
we have constantly recalled the later days w^hen he so often, 
and sometimes continually, repeated, "Religion is a boon!" No 
one could know that better than he who had so deeply felt 
the want it satisfies. 

The diary was begun in the middle of April, 1843, when 
Isaac had just returned to Brook Farm after a fortnight spent at 
home. It opens w^ith a prayer for light and direction, which is 
its 'dedication to the uses not only of an earnest but a religious 
seeker. He addresses himself directly to God as Father, not 
making either appeal or reference to our Lord. But there is in 
it an invocation to those ''that are in heaven to intercede and 
plead" for him, which recalls the fact, so often mentioned by 
him, that it was the teaching of the Catechism of the Council 
of Trent on the Communion of Saints which cleared away his 
final clouds and brought him directly to the Church. There is 
a note, too, among his later papers, in which, speaking of the 
phenomena of modern spiritualism, he says that the same long- 
ing for an assurance of personal immortality which leads so 
many into that maze of mingled truth and error, had a great 
share in disposing his mind to accept the authoritative doctrine 
of the Church, which here as elsewhere answered fully the 
deepest longings of his soul. 

We shall not attempt to follow the chronological order of 



6o The Life of Father Hecker. 

the journal with exactness, but in making our extracts shall 
pursue the order of topics rather than of time. By the middle 
of April the question of the Church had presented itself so un- 
mistakably to Isaac Hecker, as the necessary preliminary to 
further progress — to be settled in one way or another, either 
set definitely aside as unessential or else accepted as the adequate 
solution of man's problems, that his struggles for and against it 
recur with especial frequency. Faber has said somewhere that 
the Church is the touchstone of rational humanity, and that 
probably no adult passes out of life without having once, at 
least, been brought squarely face to face with it and made to 
understand and shoulder the tremendous responsibility which its 
claims impose. There would be no need of a touchstone if there 
were no alloy in human nature, no feebleness in man's will, no 
darkness in his understanding. Were that the condition of 
humanity, the call to the supernatural order would be simply 
the summons to come up higher, its symbol a beacon torch 
upon the heights. As it is, the path may be mistaken. He 
whose feet have been set ia it from birth by Christian training 
may wilfully forsake it. He whose heart is pure and whose 
aspirations noble, may be so surrounded by the mists of in- 
herited error and misapprehension that the light of truth fails 
to penetrate them when it first dawns. The road is always strait 
which leads any son of Adam to supernal joy in conscious 
union with his Creator, even when his will is good and his 
desire unfeigned. 

We shall find, therefore, that Isaac Hecker's struggles were 
many and painful before he fully recognized and attained the 
necessary means to the end he craved. They were character- 
istic also. He was looking for the satisfaction of his rational 
aspirations rather than for the solution of historical problems, 
although his mind was too clear not to see that the two are 
inextricably bound up together. But inasmuch as at the period 
of which we are writing, which was that of the Oxford Tracts, 
controversy turned mainly on questions of historical continuity and 
of Divine warrant in the external revelation of holy Scripture, it 
follows that he, and such as he, must have taken a lonely and 
unfrequented road towards the truth. Every time he looked at 
the Church he was greeted with the spectacle of unity and uni- 
formity, of discipline and order. These are elements which always 
have been, and probably always will be, most attractive to the 



Inner Life while at Brook Fartn. 6 1 

classes called educated, to men seeking for external notes of 
truth, flying from disorder, fearful of rebellion. But to Isaac 
Hecker, the only external note which deeply attracted him was 
that of universal brotherhood. If he were to bow his knee with 
joy to Jesus Christ, it would be because all, in heaven and earth 
or hell, should one day bend in union with him. 

It takes an intimate knowledge of Catholicity to perceive the 
interior transformation of humanity by its supernatural aids. On 
the one hand, the influence of Isaac Hecker's Brook Farm sur- 
roundings was to persuade him to confide wholly in nature, which 
there was very nearly at its unaided best. On the other hand, the 
treasures of Catholicity for the inner life were hidden from him. 
Religion, in his conception of it — in the true conception of it — 
must be the binding of all things together, natural and super- 
natural. Hence we find him at times complaining that the 
Church is not sufficient for his wants. If it were not personal 
in its adaptation to him, it was little that it should be histori- 
cal this, hierarchical that, or bibHcal the other. It must be his 
primarily, because he cannot live a rational and pure life with- 
out it. An ordinarily decorous life, if you will ; free from lust 
or passion, and without gross unreason, but nevertheless tame, un- 
progressive, dry and unproductive, without any absolute certainty 
except that of the helplessness of man. Such a life seemed to 
him hardly more than a synonym for death, " The fact is," as 
he writes on a page now lying before us, '* I want to live every 
moment. I want something positive, living, nourishing. I nega- 
tive only by affirming." 

The earliest entry in this diary has been already quoted in 
the first chapter of the present biography. On its second page 
occurs the following account of his impressions while in church 
on Easter Sunday : 

'' Mo7tday, April 17, 1843. — Yesterday I went to the Catholic 
church at West Roxbury. It was Easter Sunday. The services 
were, to me, very impressively affecting. The altar-piece repre- 
sented Christ's rising from the tomb, and this was the subject- 
matter of the priest's sermon. In the midst of it he turned and 
pointed to the painting, with a few touching words. All eyes 
followed his, which made his remarks doubly affecting. How 
inspiring it must be to the priest, when he is preaching, to see 
around him the Saviour, and the goodly company of martyrs, 
saints, and fathers! There may be objections to having paintings 



62 The Life of Father Hecker. 

and sculptures in churches, but I confess that I never enter a 
place where there is either but I feel an awe, an invisible in- 
fluence, which strikes me mute. I would sit in silence, covering 
my head. A sanctified atmosphere seems to fill the place and to 
penetrate my soul when I enter, as if I were in a holy temple. 
* Thou standest in a holy place,' I would say. A loud word, 
a heavy footstep, makes me shudder, as if an infidel were dese- 
crating the place. I stand speechless, in a magical atmosphere 
that wraps my whole being, scarcely daring to lift my eyes. A 
perfect stillness comes over my soul; it seems to be soaring on 
the bosom of clouds." 

*' Tuesday, April i8. — I confess that either the Church is not 
sufficient for my wants or I have not seen it in its glory. I 
hope it may be the latter. I do not want to say it, but I 
must own that it fills me no more. I contemplate it, I look at 
it, I comprehend it. It does not lead me to aspire. I feel that 
either it has nothing to give, or that what it has is not that 
for which my soul is aching I know it can be said, in reply 
that I cannot know what the Church has until I am in com- 
munion with it ; that it satisfies natures greater than mine ; that 
it is the true life of the world; that there is no true spirituality 
outside of it, and that before I can judge it rightly my life 
must be equal to it in purity and elevation. Much more might 
be said. But, after all, what is it ? The Catholic shows up the 
Anglican ; the Anglican retorts with an accusation of corruption, 
and even a want of purity ; the Protestant, the Presbyterian, 
claim their own mission at the expense of consistency and good 
logic. 

*'The whole fact, I suppose, is that if there is anything in 
Succession, Tradition, Infallibility, Church organism and form, it is 
,in the Catholic Church, and our business will be to stop this 
controversy and call an Ecumenical Council which shall settle 
these matters according to the Bible, Tradition, and the light of 
the Church." 

There is a touch of unconscious humor in the final para- 
graph which clamored for quotation. But it was plainly written 
in profound earnest. 

" ThiLrsday, April 20. — My soul is disquieted, my heart aches. 

. . Tears flow from my eyes involuntarily. My soul is 
grieved — for what ? Yesterday, as I was praying, the thought 
flashed across my mind. Where is God ? Is He not here ? Why 



Inner Life while at Brook Farm. 63 

prayest thou as if He were at a great distance from thee ? Think 
of it. Where canst thou place Him — in what locahty ? Is He 
not here in thy midst? Is His presence not nearest of all to 
thee ? Oh, think of it ! God is here. 

" Am I impious to say that the language used in Scripture 
for Christ's expresses the thoughts of my soul ? Oh, could we 
but understand that the kingdom of heaven is always at hand 
to the discerner, and that God calls upon all to ' Repent, for ye 
shall not all disappear until it shall open. This generation shall 
not pass away.' " 

Then follows a page of philosophizing on time and eternity, 
immensity and space, and ** monads who may develop or fulfil 
their destiny in other worlds than this," a reminiscence, perhaps, 
of the lectures on such topics at which Mr. Curtis says Isaac 
used to "look in," hoping to **find an answer to his questions." 
Such speculations are a trait throughout the diary, though they 
are everywhere subordinate to the practical ends which domi- 
nantly interest him. A day or two later comes a passage, 
already given in a preceding chapter, in reference to certain 
prophetic dreams which it has been given him to see realized. 
And at once this follows : 

''April 24, Noon. — The Catholic Church alone seems to satisfy 
my wants, my faith, life, soul. These may be baseless fabrics, 
chimeras dire, or what you please. I may be laboring under a 
delusion. Yet my soul is Catholic, and that faith responds to my 
soul in its religious aspirations and its longings. I have not 
wished to make myself Catholic, but that answers on all sides 
to the wants of my soul. It is so rich, so full. One is in 
harmony all over — in unison with heaven, with the present, 
living in th^ natural body, and the past, who have changed. 
There is a soHdarity between them through the Church. I do 
not feel controversial. My soul is filled." 

From this point he speedily recedes. By the next day he is 
'* lost almost in the flesh " ; *' fallen into an identity with my 
body," and notes that for some time he has " done little in study, 
but feel that I have lived very much." What hinders him 
he supposes to be *' contemplating any certain amount of study 
which I ought to accomplish — looking to it as an end. Why 
should I not be satisfied when I am living, growing ? Did 
Christ and His apostles study languages ? I have the life — is 
not that the end ? " 



64 The Life of Father Hecker. 

''April 28.— What shall I say? Am I wrong? Should I 
submit and give myself up to that which does not engage my 
whole being ? To me the Church is not the great object of life. 
I am now out of it in the common meaning. I am not subject 
to its ordinances. Is it not best for me to accept my own 
nature rather than attempt to mould it as though it were an 
object ? Is not our own existence more than this existence in 
the world ? 

"■ I read this morning an extract from Heine upon Schelling 
which affected me more than anything I have read for six 
months. The Church, says Schelling in substance, was first Pet- 
rine, then PauHne, and must be love-embracing, John-like. 
Peter, Catholicism ; Paul, Protestantism ; John, what is to be. The 
statement struck me and responded to my own dim intuitions. 
CathoKcism is solidarity ; Protestantism is individuality. What 
we want, and are tending to, is what shall unite them both, as 
John's spirit does — and that in each individual. We want 
neither the authority of History nor of the Individual ; neither 
InfallibiHty nor Reason by itself, but both combined in Life. 
Neither Precedent nor Opinion, but Being — neither a written 
nor a preached Gospel, but a living one. . . . 

''It is only through Christ we can see the love, goodness, and 
wisdom of God. He is to us what the telescope is to the 
astronomer, with this difference : He so exalts and purifies us 
that our subject becomes the power to see. The telescope is 
a medium through which the boundaries of our vision are en- 
larged, but it is passive. Christ is an active Mediator who be- 
gets us if we will, and gives us power to see by becoming one 
with Him." 

''May 3. — We all look upon this world as suits our moods, 
assimilating only such food as suits our dispositions — and no 
doubt there is sufficient variety to suit all. . . . Every personality 
individualizes the world to himself, not subjectively but truly 
objectively. . . . Every individual ought, perhaps, to be satisfied 
v/ith his own character. For it is an important truth of 
Fourier's that attractions are in proportion to destinies. Fear in 
proportion to hope, pain in proportion to pleasure, strength in 
proportion to destiny, etc. But it is mysterious that we know 
all this. 'Man has become as one of us.' We are all dead. 

'' Ah, mystic ! dost thou show thyself in this shape ? But 
now, being dead, shall we receive life and immortality (for I 



Inner Life while at Brook Far7n. 65 



imagine immortality the solidarity of life — /. r., the union of the 
two lives, here and heaven) through Jesus Christ, the Son of the 
Hving God, and so lose 'the knowledge of good and evil.' * For 
as in Adam all died, so shall ye all be made alive through 
Jesus Christ.' The effect of the fall was Hterally the knowledge 
of good and evil. God knows no evil, and when we become 
one with Him, through the Mediator, we shall regain our pre- 
vious state. Knowledge is the effect of sin, and is perhaps 
destined to correct itself Consciousness and knowledge go to- 
gether. Spontaneity and" life are one. Knowledge is no gain, 
for it gives nothing. I can only know what has been given 
through spontaneity. Spontaneity is unity, one; knowledge is 
division of being. If Adam had not been separated he would 
doubtless not have sinned. 'The woman that Thou gavest me 
said unto me, Eat, and I did eat' Still, through the seed of 
the woman, which will be the union restored, is the serpent to 
be bruised." 

''May 4.— The real effect of the theory of the Church is to 
isolate men from the outward world, withdraw them from its 
enjoyments, and make them live a life of sacrifice of the pas- 
sions. This is one statement. Another would be this : All these 
things can and should be enjoyed, but in a higlier, purer, more 
exalted state of being than is the present ordinary condition of 
our minds. The only opposition to them arises when the soul 
becomes sensual, falls into their arms, and becomes lost to 
higher and more spiritual objects. . . 

'' All is dark before me, impenetrable darkness. I appear to 
live in the centre. Nothing seems to take hold of my soul, or 
else it seeks nothing. Where it is I know^ not. I meet with no one 
else around me. I would that I could feel .that some one lived in 
the same world that I now do. Something cloudy separates 
us. I cannot speak from my real being to others. There is no 
mutual recognition. When I speak, it is as if a burden accu- 
mulated round me. I long to throw it off, but I cannot utter 
my thoughts and feehngs in their presence ; if I do, they return 
to me unrecognized. Shall I ever meet with one the windows 
of whose soul will open simultaneously with mine ? " 

On the first Sunday of May Isaac went into Boston to hear 
Brownson preach, and a day or two later made the subjoined 
shrewd comments on the sermon in a letter to his mother: 

*• May 9, '43.— His intention is to preach the Catholic doc- 



66 The Life of Father Hecker. 

trine and administer the Sacraments. How many of them, I 
suppose, depends on circumstances. He justifies himself on the 
ground that he that is not against us is for us, and that in 
times of exigency, and in extraordinary cases, we may do what 
we could not be excused for doing otherwise. And he thinks 
by proclaiming the Catholic faith and repudiating the attempt 
to build up a Church, that in time the Protestant world will be- 
come Catholic in its dispositions, so that a unity will be made 
without submission or sacrifice. Under present circumstances it 
would be impossible, even if the Protestant churches should be 
willing to unite with the Catholic, that the Catholic could even 
supply priests for forty millions of Protestants, the Protestant 
priests being most of them married, etc. 

*' I confess the sermon was wholly unsatisfactory to me, un- 
catholic in its premises, and many of his arguments and facts 
chimerical and illusive. If you grant that the Roman Catholic 
Church is the true Church, there is, to my thought, no stopping- 
place short of its bosom. Or even if it is the nearest to the 
truth, you are under obligations to join it. How any one can 
beheve in either one of those propositions, as O. A. B. does, 
without becoming a Catholic in fact, I cannot conceive. This 
special pleading of exceptions, the necessity of the case, and 
improbable suppositions, springs more, I think, from the position 
of the individual than from the importance or truth, of the argu- 
ments made use of. Therefore I think he will give up in time 
the ground upon which he now supports his course — not the 
object but his position. ... I have bought a few Catholic books 
in Boston which treat upon the Anglican claims to Catholicity, 
and I think I can say, so far, I never shall join a Protestant 
Church — while I am not positive on the positive side, nor even 
in any way as yet decided." 



CHAPTER VII. 

STRUGGLES. 



'T^HE citations thus far made from Isaac Hecker's youthful 
1 diary, although penned at Brook Farm, bear few traces of 
that fact. They might have been written in a desert for all evi- 
dence they give of any special influence produced upon him by 
personal contact with others. It is not until the middle of May, 
1843, that he begins to make any reference to his actual sur- 
roundings. 

Before following him into these more intimate self-confi- 
dences, and especially before giving in his own words an ac- 
count of that peculiar occurrence which so permanently affected 
his future, some preliminary remarks seem necessary. 

It has been said already, in an earlier chapter of this biogra- 
phy, that but for some special intervention of Divine Providence, 
it is more than probable that Isaac Hecker would have led the 
ordinary life of men in the world, continuing, indeed, to cherish 
a high ideal of the duties of the citizen of a free country, but 
pursuing it along well-beaten ways. There is no doubt 'that, 
unless some such event as he has narrated, or some influence 
equivalent to it in effect, had supernaturally drawn him away, he 
would of his own volition have sought what he was repeatedly 
advised to seek by his most attached friends, a congenial union in 
wedlock. He was naturally susceptible, and his attachments were 
not only firm, but often seemed obstinate. Of celibacy he had, 
up to this time, no other idea than such as the common run of 
non-Catholics possess. At home, indeed, when afterwards pressed 
to seek a wife, he had answered, truly enough, though holding 
fast to his secret, that he '' had no thought of marrying and felt 
an aversion to company for such an end." And again he writes 
to his mother, anxious and troubled for his future, that the 
circle which surrounded him in New York oppressed and con- 
tracted him, and abridged his liberty. There was no one in it 
who "increased his life." 

But at Brook Farm he met some one, as is revealed by his 
diary and correspondence, who deeply attracted him, and who 
might have attracted him as far as marriage had he not already 
received the Holy Spirit's prevenient grace of virginity. That is 
to say, he found ''a being," to use his impersonal term, whose 



68 The Life of Father Hecker. 

name and identity he is careful to veil, awkwardly enough at 
times with misleading pronouns, whose charm was so great as 
to win from him what would have been, in his normal state, a 
marital affection. But he was no longer normal. Although still 
beyond the visible pale of that garden of elect souls, God's 
holy Church, he was already transformed by the quickening 
grace which *' reaches from end to end mightily and orders all 
things sweetly." Our next quotations afford explicit proof on 
this point : 

" Tuesday^ May i6. — Life appears to be a perpetual struggle 
between the heavenly and the worldly. 

'' Here at Brook Farm I become acquainted with persons 
who have moved in a higher rank in society than I — persons of 
good education and fine talents ; all of which has an improving 
influence on me. And I meet with those to whom I can speak, 
and feel that, to a great degree, I am understood and responded 
to. In New York I am alone in the midst of people. •! am 
not in any internal sense ert rapport with them. 

"■ I suppose the reason why I do not, in my present state, 
feel disposed to connect myself with any being, and would rather 
avoid a person whom I was conscious I might or could love, is 
that I feel my life to be in a rapid progress, and that no step 
now would be a permanent one. I am afraid the choice I would 
have made some time since {if there had not been something 
deeply secret in my being which prevented ^ne) would now be 
very unsatisfactory. I feel conscious there could not have been 
an equal and mutual advance, because the natures of some are 
not capable of much growth. And I mistrust whether there 
would not have been an inequality, hence disharmony and un- 
happiness. 

'* To be required to accept your past is most unpleasant. 
Perhaps the society with which I was surrounded did not afford 
a being that unified with mine own. And I have faith that 
there are spiritual laws beneath all this outward framework of 
sight and sense, which will, if rightly believed in and trusted, 
lead to the goal of eternal life, harmony of being, and union 
with God. So I accept my being led here. Am I superstitious 
or egoistic in believing this ? This is, no doubt, disputed terri- 
tory. Have we any objective rule to compare our faith with 
which would give us the measure of our superstition ? How much 
of to-day would have seemed miraculous or superstitious to the 



Struggles. 69 



past ? I confess I have no rule or measure to judge the faith 
of any man. 

" The past is always the state of infancy. The present is an 
eternal youth, aspiring after manhood ; hoping wistfully, intensely 
desiring, listfully listening, dimly seeing the bright star of hope 
in the future, beckoning him to move rapidly on, while his 
strong heart beats with enthusiasm and glowing joy. The past 
is dead. Wish me not the dead from the grave, for that would 
be death re-enacted. . . 

** Oh, were our wishes in harmony with heaven, how changed 
would be the scenes of our life ! . . . This accordance would 
be music which only the angels now hear — too delicate for be- 
ings such as we are at present. List ! hast thou not heard in 
some bright moment a strain from heaven's angelic choirs ? Oh, 
yes ! In our sleep the angels have whispered such rich music, 
and the soul being then passive, we can hear. And the pleasure 
does tiot leave us when passion and thought take their accus- 
tomed course. 

" O man ! were thy soul more pure, what a world would 
open to thy inner senses ! There would be no moment of thy 
existence but would be filled with the music of love. The 
prophet said : ' In that day my eyes were opened.' And behold 
what he saw ! He saw it. Could we but hear ! The word of 
the Lord is ever speaking — alas ! where is one that can hear ? 
Where are our Isaiahs, our Ezekiels, our Jeremiahs ? Oh ! thou 
shruriken-visaged, black, hollow-eyed doubt ! hast thou passed like 
a cloud over men's souls, making them blind, deaf, and dumb ? 
Ah, ha ! dost thou shudder ? I chant thy requiem, and prophets, 
poets, and seers shall rise again ! I see them coming. Great 
heaven ! Earth shall be again a paradise, and God converse 
with men ! " 

The next entry is undated, but it was probably made on 
the last day of May. It has served to fix the proximate time 
of the illness and disquiet which led to his first withdrawal from 
business and home. 

** Wednesday. — About ten months ago — perhaps only seven 
or eight — I saw (I cannot say I dreamed ; it was quite different 
from dreaming ; I was seated on the side of my bed) a beau- 
tiful, angelic being, and myself standing alongside of her, feel- 
ing a most heavenly pure joy. It w^as as if our bodies were 
luminous and gave forth a moon-like light which sprung from 



7o The Life of Father Heckei\ 

the joy we experienced. I felt as if we had always lived 
together, and that our motions, actions, feelings, and thoughts 
came from one centre. When I looked towards her I saw no 
bold outline of form, but an angelic something I cannot describe, 
though in angelic shape and image. It was this picture that has 
left such ait indelible impression on my mind. For some time 
afterward I continued to feel the same influence, and do now 
so often that the actual around me has lost its hold. In my 
state previous to this vision I should have been married ere 
this, for there are those I have since seen who would have 
met the demands of m.y mind. But now this vision continu- 
ally hovers over me and prevents me, by its beauty, from 
accepting any one else ; for I am charmed by its influence, 
and conscious that, should I accept any other, I should lose 
the life which would be the only one wherein I could say I 
live." 

Those of our readers who are either versed in mystical 
theology or who have any wide knowledge of the lives of the 
Church's more interior saints, with neither of which Isaac Hecker 
had at this time any acquaintance, will be apt to recall here 
St. Francis of Assisi and his bride, the Lady Poverty, the 
similar occurrences related by Henry Suso of himself, and the 
mystic espousals of St. Catharine. We have in this relation 
not only the plainly avowed reason why he accepted the celi- 
bate life, even before entering the Church or arriving at any 
clear understanding of his duty to do so, but we have Some- 
thing more. Not yet certain of his own vocation, the dream of 
a virginal apostolate, including the two sexes, had already 
absorbed his yearnings, never again to be forgotten. Neither 
priest nor Catholic, save in the as yet unrevealed ordinance of 
God, he was no longer free to invite any woman to marriage, 
no matter how deeply he might be sensible of her feminine 
attraction. The union of souls ? Yes ; for uses worthy of 
souls. The union of bodies ? No ; that would only clip his 
wings and narrow his horizon. Thenceforward the test of true 
kinship with him could only be a kindred aspiration after 
union in liberty from merely natural trammels, in order to tend 
more surely to a supernatural end. 

This may seem to some a strange beginning to a life so 
simply and entirely set apart from the active, or, at least, public 
union of the sexes in aoostolic labors. Stran<je or not, the 



Struggles. 7 1 



reader will see it to be more true as this biography proceeds, 
and its writer is not conscious of any reluctance to make it 
known. Such an integral supernatural rpission to men was what 
he ever after desired and sought to establish, though he only 
attained success on the male side. We cannot deny that this 
diary, surprising to us in many ways, was most so in this 
particular, although in this particular we found the explanation 
of many words spoken by Father Hecker in his maturity and 
old age, words the most sober and the most decided we ever 
heard from him. He never for an hour left out of view the 
need of women for any great work of religion, though he 
doubtless made very sure of his auditor before unveiling his 
whole thought. He never made so much as a serious attempt 
to incorporate women with his work, but he never ceased to 
look around and to plan with a view to doing so. Among the 
personal memoranda already mentioned are found evidences of 
this so direct, and corroborated by such recent facts, that they 
cannot be used until the lapse of time shall have made an 
extension of this life as well possible as necessary. 

^' June I. — One cannot live a spiritual life in the world 
because it requires so much labor to supply food and clothing 
that what is inward and eternal has to be given up for the 
material and life in time. If one has to sustain himself at 
Brook Farm without other means to aid him, he must employ 
his strength to that degree that he has no time for the culture 
of the spiritual. I cannot remain and support myself without 
becoming subject to the same conditions as existed at home. I 
cannot expect them to be willing to lessen their present ex- 
penses much_ for the sake of gaining time for spiritual culture ; 
nor do I see how I can at home live with my relatives and have 
the time which I require. I see no way but to give up the 
taste for fine clothing and variety in food. I would prefer the 
life of the monastery to that of the external world. The advan- 
tages for my being are greater. The harmony of the two is 
the full and perfect existence ; but the spiritual should always 
be preserved at the expense of the other, which is contrary to 
the tendency of the world, and perhaps even to that of this place. 
I would prefer going hungry in body than in soul. I am 
speaking against neither, for I believe in the fulness of life, in 
amply supplying all its wants ; but the kingdom of God is more 
to me than this world. I would be Plato in love, Zeno in self- 



72 The Life of Father Hecker. 

strength, and Epicurus in aesthetics ; but if I have to sacrifice 
either, let Epicurus go." 

'^ June 12. — At times I have an impulse to cry out, 'What 
wouldst Thou have me to do ? ' I would shout up into the 
empty vault of heaven : * Ah, why plaguest Thou me so ? What 
shall I do ? Give me an answer unless Thou wilt have me 
consumed by inward fire, drying up the living liquid of life. 
Wouldst Thou have me to give up all ? I have. I have no 
dreams to realize. I want nothing, have nothing, and am will- 
ing to die in any way. What ties I have are few, and can be 
cut with a groan.' " 

'* Monday, June -26. — Solomon said, after he had tasted all 
the joys of the world, ' Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' I, my 
friend, who have scarcely tasted any of the pleasures of the 
world, would say with Solomon, * All is vanity.' I see nothing 
in which I can work. All are vanities, shadows ; beneath all 
there is nothing. Great God ! what is all this for ? Why tor- 
ment and pain me so ? Why is all this action a profanity to 
me ? And even holiness, what is it ? 

'' Oh ! I am dumb ; my soul is inarticulate. There is that 
in me which I would pour out. Oh ! why is it that the noblest 
actions of humanity speak not to my soul ? All life is inade- 
quate — but not in the sense of the world. I would joyfully be 
silent, obscure, dead to all the world, if this alone which is 
in me had life. I ask not for name, riches, external conditions 
of delight or splendor. No ; the meanest of all would be 
heaven to me, if this inward impulse had action, lived itself 
out. But no ; I am imprisoned in spirit. What imprisons ? 
What is imprisoned ? Who can tell ? 

*' You say, good adviser, ' You must accept things as they 
are — be content to be ; have faith in God ; do that work which 
your hands find to do.' Good ; but it is taken for granted we 
know what things are — which is the question. * Be content to 
be.' Be what? 'Have faith in God.' Yes. 'Work?' Yes; 
but how? Like others. But this is not work to me; it is 
death ; nay, worse — it is sin ; hence, damnation — and I am not 
ready to go to hell yet. Vour work gives 7ne no activity ; and 
to starve, if 1 must, is better than to do the profane, the sacri- 
legious labor you place before me. I want God's living work 
to do. My labor must be a sermon, every motion of my body 
a word, every act a sentence. My work must be devotional. I 



Struggles. 73 



must feel that I am worshipping. It must be music, love, 
prayer. My field must be the kingdom of God. Christ must 
reign in all. It must be Christ doing in me, and not me. My 
life must be poetical, divine. Head, heart, and hands rnust be 
a trinity in unity ; they must tone in one accord. My work 
must be work of inspiration and aspiration. My heart cannot be 
in heaven when my head and hands are in hell. I must feel that 
I am building up Christ's kingdom in all that I do. To give 
Christ room for action in my heart, soul, and body is my de- 
sire, my aim, purpose, being. . . . 

" It is not. he who goes to church, says his prayers, sings 
psalms, says ' Lord, Lord,' who is in God and establishing His 
kingdom. No ; it is he who is doing it. The earth is to be 
His kingdom, and your prayers must be deeds, your actions 
music ascending to heaven. The Church must be the kingdom 
of God in its fulness. 

''Are we Christians if we act not in the spirit in which 
Christ acted ? Shall we say : ' What shall we do ? ' Follow 
the spirit of Christ which is in you. ' Unless ye are repro- 
bates, ye have it in you.' ' Be ye faithful, as I am,' said 
Jesus. ' Love one another as I have loved you.' Take up 
your cross and follow Him. Leave all, if the Spirit leads you 
to leave all. Do whatever it commands you. There will be no 
lack of action. Care not for the world ; give up wealth, friends, 
those that you love, the opinions of all. Be willing to be de- 
spised, spit upon, crucified. Be silent, and let your silence 
speak for you." 

It is plain that what Isaac Hecker is here condemning is 
the life of the world, wholly ordinary in its aims and motives. 
It is not to be understood as a condemnation of the common 
lot of men, or of that life in itself It was only as he saw it 
over against his own vocation to something higher that it be- 
came repulsive, nay guilty to him. Nor was he even yet so 
settled in his view of the contrasted worth of the two careers 
between which he had to choose, as to be quite free from pain- 
ful struggles. In the entry made on the day preceding this 
outburst, he once more recurs to the subject of marriage : 

*' Monday Evening, June 26. — This evening the same advice 
that has been given me before, first by the doctor who at- 
tended me, next by my dearest friend, was given me again 
by a man who now resides here." 



74 The Life of Father Hecker. 

** Tuesday Mornings Ju7ie 27. — Rather than follow this ad- 
vice, I would die. I should be miserable all my life. Nay, 
death before this. These men appear to me as natural men, 
but not in the same life as mine. They are older, have more ex- 
perience and more judgment than I, perhaps ; but considering the 
point of view from which their judgment is formed, their advice 
does not appear to be the counsel for me. I never can, nor will, 
save my health or life by such means. If that is the only 
remedy, then unremedied must I remain. 

** But the cause of my present state of mind is not what 
they suppose. It is deeper, higher, and, O God ! Thou know- 
est what it is ! Wilt Thou give me hope, strength, guid- 
ance ? " . 

'' Friday, June 29. — Am I led by something higher to 
the life to which I am tending ? Sometimes I think it is 
most proper for me to return home, accept things as they 
are, and live a life like others — as good, and as much bet- 
ter as possible. If I can find one with whom I think I can 
live happily, to accept such a one, and give up that which 
now leads me. 

" My friends would say this is the prudent and rational 
course — but it appears this is not mine. That - 1 am here is 
one evidence that it is not mine. A second is that I strug- 
gled against what led me here as much as lay in my power, 
until I became weak, sick, and confined to my bed. Farther 
than that I could not go. 

" They tell me that if I were married it would not be so 
with me. I will not dispute this, although I do not beheve it. 
But, my good friends, that is the difhculty. To marry is to me 
impossible. You tell me this is unnatural. Yes, my brethren, it 
may be unnatural, but how shall I be natural ? Must I commit 
that which in my sight is a crime, which I feel would make me 
miserable and be death to my soul ? ' But this is foolish and 
one-sided in you. You are wrong-minded. You will lose - your 
health, your youthful joy, and the pleasure which God has, 
by human laws, designed you to enjoy. You should give up 
these thoughts and feelings of yours and be lUce those around 
you.' 

"■ Yes, my friends, this advice I accept with love, knowing 
your kindness to me. But, alas ! I feel that it comes from such 
a source that I cannot receive it." 



Struggles. 75 



''July 5. — My brother George has been here; he stayed 
three days. He told me he had often talked with my brother 
John about living a life higher, nobler, and more self-denying 
than he had done. It appears from his conversation that since 
I left home they have been impressed with a deeper and better 
spirit. To me it is of much interest to decide what J shall do. 
I have determined to make a visit to Fruitlands. To leave this 
place is to me a great sacrifice. I have been much refined in 
being here. 

" To stay here — to purchase a place for myself — or to go 
home. These are questions about which I feel the want of some 
friend to consult with. I have no one to whom I can go for 
advice. If I wish to be self-denying, one would say at home is 
the best, the largest field for my activity. This may be true in 
one sense. But is it wise to go where there are the most diffi- 
culties to overcome ? Would it not be better to plant the tree in the 
soil where it can grow most in every direction? At home, to be 
sure, if I have strength to succeed, I may, perhaps, do the most 
good, and it may be the widest sphere for me. But there are 
many difficulties which have such a direct influence on one to 
injure, to blight all high and noble sentiments, that I fear to 
encounter them, and I am not sure it is my place. Perhaps it 
would be best for me not to speculate on the future, but look 
to Him who is above for wise direction in all that concerns my 
life. Sacrifices must be made. I must expect and accept them 
in a meek, humble, and willing spirit." 




CHAPTER VIII. 

FRUITLANDS. 

WHAT influenced Isaac Hecker to leave Brook Farm, a place 
so congenial in many ways to his natiiral dispositions, was, 
plainly enough, his tendency to seek a more ascetic and interior 
life than he could lead there. The step cost him much, but he 
had received all that the place and his companions could give 
him, and his departure was inevitable. 

His next move in pursuit of his ideal took him to Fruitlands. 
This was a farm, situated near Harvard, in Worcester Co., 
Massachusetts, which had been bought by Mr. Charles Lane, an 
English admirer of Amos Bronson Alcott, with the hope of 
establishing on it a new community in consonance with the 
views and wishes of the latter. Perhaps Fruitlands could never, 
at any stage of its existence as a corporate home for Mr. Al- 
cott's family and his scanty following of disciples, have been 
truly described as in running order, but when Isaac Hecker went 
there, on July ii, 1843, it was still in its incipiency. He had 
paid the Fruitlanders a brief visit toward the end of June, and 
thought that he saw in them evidences of ** a deeper life." It 
speaks volumes for his native sagacity and keen eye for realities, 
that less than a fortnight's residence with Mr. Alcott should 
have sufficed to dispel t*his illusion. 

Bronson Alcott seems to have been by nature what the French 
call a poseur ; or, as one of his own not unkindly intimates has 
described him, "an innocent charlatan." Although not al- 
together empty, he was vain ; full of talk which had what was 
most often a false air of profundity; unpractical and incapable in 
the ordinary affairs of life to a degree not adequately compen- 
sated for by such a grasp as he was able to get on the realities 
that underlie them ; and with an imposing aspect which corre- 
sponded wonderfully well with his interior traits. That, in his 
prime, his persuasive accents and bland self-confidence, backed 
by the admiration felt and expressed for him by men such as 
Emerson, and some of the community at Brook Farm, should 
have induced an open-minded youth like Isaac Hecker to take 
him for a time at his own valuation, is not strange. The truth 
is, that it was one of Father Hecker's life-long traits to prove all 

things, that he might find the good and hold fast to it. There 

76 



Frjiitlands. 77 



was an element of justice in his make-up which enabled him to 
suspend judgment upon any institution or person, however httle 
they seemed to deserve such consideration, until he was in a 
condition to decide from his own investigations. We shall see, 
later on, how he tried all the principal forms of Protestantism 
before deciding upon Catholicity, strong as his tendency toward 
the Church had become. We have never known any other man 
who, without exhibiting obstinacy, could so steadfastly reserve 
his judgment on another's statement, especially if it were in the 
nature of a condemnation. 

When Isaac Hecker first made his acquaintance, Mr. Alcott 
had but recently returned from England, whither he had gone 
on the invitation of James P. Greaves, a friend and fellow-laborer 
of the great Swiss educator, Pestalozzi. Mr. Alcott had gained 
a certain vogue at home as a lecturer, and also as the conductor 
of a singular school for young children. Among its many 
peculiarities was that of carrying ''moral suasion" to such lengths, 
as a solitary means of discipline, that the master occasionally 
publicly submitted to the castigation earned by a refractory 
urchin, probably by way of reaching the latter's moral sense 
through shame or pity. This was, doubtless, rather interesting 
to the pupils, whether or not it was corrective. Mr. Alcott's 
peculiarities did not stop here, however, and Boston parents, 
when he began to publish the Colloquies on the Gospels which 
he held with their children, concluded, on the evidence thus 
furnished, that his thought was too "advanced" to make it 
prudent to trust them longer to his care. Miss Elizabeth P. 
Peabody, since so well known as an expositor of the Kinder- 
garten system, had been his assistant. She wrote a Record of 
Mr. Alcotf s^ School which attracted the attention of a small 
band of educational enthusiasts in England. They gave the 
name of "Alcott House" to a school of their own at Ham, near 
London, and hoped for great things from the personal advice 
and presence of the " Concord Plato." He was petted and feted 
among them pretty nearly to the top of his bent ; but his visit 
would have proved a more unalloyed success if the hard Scotch 
sense of Carlyle, to whom Emerson had recommended him, had 
not so quickly dubbed his vaunted depths deceptive shallows. 

On his return he was accompanied by two Englishmen who 
seemed to be Hke-minded with himself, a Mr. H. G. Wright 
and Mr. Charles Lane, both of whom returned within a year or 



yS The Life of Father Hecker. 

two to their own country, wiser and perhaps sadder men. 
Lane, at all events, who was a simple and candid soul for whom 
Isaac Hecker conceived a long-enduring friendship, sunk all his 
private means irrevocably in the futile attempt to establish Fruit- 
lands on a solid basis. To use his own words in a letter now 
at our hand, though referring to another of'Mr. Alcott's schemes, 
his little fortune was '' buried in the same grave of flowery rhe- 
toric in which so many other notions have been deposited." 

Lying before us there is an epistle — Mr. Alcott's most 
ordinary written communications with his friends must have 
demanded that term in preference to anything less stately — in 
which he has described his own ideal of what life at Fruitlands 
ought to be. No directer way of conveying to our readers a 
notion of his pecuHar faculty of seeming to say something of singu- 
lar importance occurs to us, than that of giving it entire. Though 
found among Father Hecker's papers, it was not addressed to 
him but to one of his most- valued Brook Farm associates : 

''Concord, Mass., February 15, 1843. — DEAR FRIEND: In reply 
to your letter of the 12th, I have to say that as until the snow 
leaves the ground clear, the Family cannot so much as look for a 
locality (which then may not readily be found), it seem.s premature 
to talk of the conditions on which any association may be formed. 

" Nevertheless, as human progress is a universally interesting 
subject, I have much pleasure in communicating with you on the 
question of the general conditions most conducive to that end. 

** I have no belief in associations of human beings for the 
purpose of making themselves happy by means of improved out- 
ward arrangements alone, as the fountains of happiness are within, 
and are opened to us as we are preharmonized or consociated 
with the Universal Spirit. This is the one condition needful for 
happy association amongst men. And this condition is attained 
by the surrender of all individual or selfish gratification — a com- 
plete willingness to be moulded by Divinity. This, as men now 
are, of course involves self-renunciation and retrenchment ; and in 
enumerating the hindrances which debar us from happiness, we 
shall be drawn to consider, in the first place, ourselves ; and to 
entertain practically the question, Are we prepared for the giving 
up all, and taking refuge in Love as an unfailing Providence ? 
A faith and reliance as large as this seems needful to insure us 
against disappointment. The entrance to Paradise is still through 
the strait gate and narrow way of self-denial. Eden's avenue is 
yet guarded by the fiery-sworded cherubim, and humility and 
charity are the credentials for admission. Unless well armed with 
valor and patience, we must continue in the old and much- 



Friiitiands. 79 



trodden broad way, and take share of the penalties paid by all 
who walk thereon. 

"The conditions for one are conditions for all. Hence there 
can be no parley with the tempter, no private pleas for self- 
indulgence, no leaning on the broken reed of circumstances. 

*' It is not for us to prescribe conditions; these are prescribed 
on our natures, our state of being — and the best we can do, if 
disqualified, is either to attain an amended character, or to relin- 
quish all hopes of securing felicity. 

** Our purposes, as far as we know them at present, are 
briefly these : 

" First, to obtain the free use of a spot of land adequate by 
our own labor to our support; including, of course, a convenient 
plain house, and offices, wood-lot, garden, and orchard. 

** Secondly, to live independently of foreign aids by being suffi- 
ciently elevated to procure all articles for subsistence in the pro- 
ductions of the spot, under a regimen of healthful labor and 
recreation; with benignity towards all creatures, human and in- 
ferior; with beauty and refinement in all economies; and the 
purest charity throughout our demeanor. 

" Should this kind of life attract parties towards us — indi- 
viduals of like aims and issues — that state of being itself deter- 
mines the law of association ; and the particular mode may be 
spoken of more definitely as individual cases may arise ; but, in 
no case, could inferior ends compromise the principles laid down. 

'* Doubtless such a household, with our library, our services 
and manner of life, may attract young men and women, possibly 
also families with children, desirous of access to the channels and 
fountain of wisdom and purity ; and we are not without hope 
that Providence will use us progressively for beneficial effects in 
the great work of human regeneration, and the restoration of the 
highest life on earth. 

" With the humane wish that yourself and little ones may be 
led to confide in providential Love, 

** I am, dear friend, very truly yours, 

"A. Bronson Alcott." 

It must be admitted that there is something delightful in the 
naivete of this undertaking to be " sufficiently elevated to live 
independently of foreign aids," after first getting "■ the free use of 
a spot of land, . . . including, of course, a convenient plain 
house, and offices, wood-lot, garden, and orchard." Establish- 
ments which would tolerably approximate xo this description, and 
to the really essential needs of its prospective founder, have long 
existed in every civilized community. There are certain restric- 
tions placed upon their inmates, however, and Mr. Alcott's desire 



8o The Life of Father Hecker. 

was to make sure of his basis of earthly supplies, while left en- 
tirely free to persuade himself that he had arrived at an eleva- 
tion which made him independent of them. Still, though " a 
charlatan," it must not be forgotten that he was ''an innocent" 
one. He was plainly born great in that way, and had no need 
to achieve greatness in it. As Father Hecker said of him long 
afterwards, *' Diogenes and his tub would have been Alcott's 
ideal if he had carried it out But he never carried it out." 
Diogenes himself, it may be supposed, had his ideal included a 
family and an audience as well as a tub, might finally have come 
to hold that the finding of the latter was a mere detail, which 
could be entrusted indifferently to either of the two former or 
to both combined. Somebody once described Fruitlands as a 
place where Mr. Alcott looked benign and talked philosophy, 
while Mrs. Alcott and the children did the work. Still, to look 
benign is a good deal for a man to do persistently in an adverse 
world, indifferent for the most part to the charms of "■ divine 
philosophy," and Mr. Alcott persevered in that exercise until his 
latest day. '* He was unquestionably one of those who like to 
sit upon a platform," wrote, at the time of his death, one who knew 
Alcott well, "■ and he may have liked to feel that his venerable 
aspect had the efTect of a benediction." But with this mild cri- 
ticism, censure of him is well-nigh exhausted. There was nothing 
of the Patriarch of Bleeding Heart Yard about him except that 
" venerable aspect," for which nature was responsible, and not he. 

Fruitlands was the caricature of Brook Farm. Just as the 
fanatic is the caricature of the true reformer, so was Alcott the 
caricature of Ripley. This is not meant as disparaging either 
Alcott's sincerity or his inteUigence, but to affirm that he lacked 
judgment, that he miscalculated means and ends, that he jumped 
from theory to practice without a moment's interval, preferred 
to be guided by instinct rather than by processes of reasoning, 
and deemed this to be the philosopher's way. 

In the memoranda of private conversations with Father Hecker 
we find several references to Mr. Alcott. The first bears date 
February 4, 1882, and occurs in a conversation ranging over the 
whole of his experience between his first and second departures 
from home. We give it as it stands : 

" Fruitlands was very different from Brook Farm — far more 
ascetic." 



Fruitlaiids. 8 1 



"You didn't like it?" 

" Yes ; but they did not begin to satisfy me. I said to them : 
' If you had the Eternal here, all right. I would be with you.' " 

*' Had they no notion of the hereafter ? " 

" No ; nothing definite. Their idea was human perfection. 
They set out to demonstrate what man can do in the way of 
the supremacy of the spiritual over the animal, ' All right,' I 
said, ' I agree with you fully. I admire your asceticism ; it is 
nothing new to me; I have practised it a long time myself. If 
3'ou can get the Everlasting out of my mind, I'm yours. But I 
know ' (here Father Hecker thumped the table at his bedside) 
* that I am going to live for ever.'" 

** What did Alcott say when you left ? " 

** He went to Lane and said, ' Well, Hecker has flunked out. 
He hadn't the courage to persevere. He's a coward.' But Lane 
said, * No ; you're mistaken. Hecker's right. He wanted more 
than we had to give him.'" 

Mr. Alcott's death in 1888 was the occasion of the reminis- 
cences which follow : 

''March 5, 1888. — Bronson Alcott dead! I saw him coming 
from Rochester on the cars. I had been a CathoHc missionary 
for I don't know how many years. We sat together. ' Father 
Hecker,' said he, ' why can't you make a CathoHc of me ? ' 
^ Too much rust here,' said I, clapping him on the knee. He 
got very angry because I said that was the obstacle. I never 
saw him angry at any other time. He was too proud, 

" But he was a great natural man. He was faithful to pure, 
natural conscience. His virtues came from that. He never had 
any virtue beyond what a good pagan has. He never aimed 
at anything more, nor claimed to. He maintained that to 
be all. 

" I don't believe he ever prayed. Whom could he pray to ? 
Was not Bronson Alcott the greatest of all ? " 

'' Did he believe in God ? " 

'' Not the God that we know. He believed in the Bronson 
Alcott God. He was his own God." 

" You say he was Emerson's master : what do you mean by 
that ? " 

" He taught Emerson, He began life as a pedler. The 
Yankee pedler was Emerson's master. Whatever principles 



82 The Life of Father Hecker 

Emerson had, Alcott gave him. And Emerson was a good 
pupil; he was faithful to his master to the end. 

" When did I know him first ? Hard to remember. He was 
the head of Fruitlands, as Ripley was of Brook Farm. They 
were entirely different men. Diogenes and his tub would have 
been Alcott's ideal if he had carried it out. But he never 
carried it out. Ripley's ideal would have been Epictetus. 
Ripley would have taken with him the good things of this life; 
Alcott would have rejected them all." 

" How did he receive you at Fruitlands ? " 

*' Very kindly, but from mixed and selfish motives. I sus- 
pected he wanted me because he thought I would bring money 
to the community. Lane was entirely unselfish. 

" Alcott was a man of no great intellectual gifts or acquire- 
ments. His knowledge came chiefly from experience and instinct. 
He had an insinuating and persuasive way with him — he must 
have been an ideal pedler." 

"What if he had been a Catholic, and thoroughly sanc- 
tified?" 

" He could have been nothing but a hermit like those of 
the fourth century — he was naturally and constitutionally so odd. 
Emerson, Alcott, and Thoreau were three consecrated cranks : 
rather be crank than president. All the cranks look up to 
them." 

Beside these later reminiscences we shall now place the con- 
temporary record of his impressions made by Isaac Hecker while 
at Fruitlands. Our first extract, however, was written at Brook 
Farm, a few days before going thither : 
<t 

^' July 7, 1843. — I go to Mr. Alcott's next Tuesday, if 

nothing happens. I have had three pairs of coarse pants and a 
coat made for me. It is my intention to commence work as 
soon as I get there. I will gradually simplify my dress without 
making any sudden difference, although it would be easier to 
make a radical and thorough change at once than piece by 
piece. But this will be a lesson in patient perseverance to me. 
All our diflficulties should be looked at in such a light as to 
improve and elevate our minds. 

'' I can hardly prevent myself from saying how much I shall 
miss the company of those whom I love and associate with here. 
But I must go. I am called with a stronger voice. This is a 



Fi'tiit lands. 83 



different trial from any I have ever had. I have had that of 
leaving kindred, but now I have that of leaving those whom I 
love from affinity. If I wished to live a life the most gratifying 
to me, and in agreeable company, I certainly would remain here. 
Here are refining amusements, cultivated persons — and one whom 
I have not spoken of, one who is too much to me to speak of, 
one who would leave all for me. Alas ! him I must leave 
to go." 

In this final sentence, as it now stands in the diary and as we 
have transcribed it, occurs one of those efforts of which we have 
spoken, to obliterate the traces of this early attachment. "Him" 
was originally written *'her," but the r has been lengthened to an 
m, and the e dotted, both with a care which overshot their mark 
by an almost imperceptible hair's- breadth. If the nature of 
this attachment were not so evident from other sources, we 
should have left such passages unquoted ; fearing lest they might 
be misunderstood. As it is, the light they cast seems to us to 
throw up into fuller proportions the kind and extent of the re- 
nunciations to which Isaac Hecker was called before he had 
arrived at any clear view of the end to which they tended. 

*^ Fruitlands, July 12. — Last evening I arrived here. After 
tea I went out in the fields and raked hay for an hour in com- 
pany with the persons here. We returned and had a conver- 
sation on Clothing. Some very fine things were said by Mr. 
Alcott and Mr. Lane. In most of their thoughts I coincide ; 
they are the same which of late have much occupied my mind. 
Alcott said that to Emerson the world was a lecture-room, to 
Brownson a rostrum. 

"This morning after breakfast a conversation was held on 
Friendship and its laws and conditions. Mr. Alcott placed 
Innocence first; Larned, Thoughtfulness ; I, Seriousness; Lane, 
Fidelity. 

*' July 13. — This morning after breakfast there was held a 
conversation on The Highest Aim. Mr. Alcott said it was 
Integrity; I, Harmonic being; Lane, Progressive being; Larned, 
Annihilation of self ; Bower, Repulsion of the evil in us. 
Then there was a confession of the obstacles which prevent us 
from attaining the highest aim. Mine was the doubt whether 
the light is light ; not the want of will to follow, or the sight to 
see." 



84 The Life of Father Hecker. 

''July 17. — I cannot understand what it is that leads me, or 
what I am after. Being is incomprehensible. 

'' What shall I be led to ? Is there a being whom I may 
marry and who would be the means of opening my eyes ? 
Sometimes I think so — but it appears impossible. Why should 
others tell me that it is so, and will be so, in an unconscious 
way, as Larned did on Sunday last, and as others have before 
him ? Will I be led home ? It strikes me these people here, 
Alcott and Lane, will be a great deal to me. I do not know 
but they may be what I am looking for, or the answer to that 
in me which is asking. 

" Can I say it ? I beheve it should be said. Here I cannot 
end. They are too near me; they do not awaken in me that 
sense of their high superiority which would keep me here to be 
bettered, to be elevated. They have much, very much. I desire 
Mr. Alcott's strength of self-denial, and the unselfishness of Mr. 
Lane in money matters. In both these they are far my supe- 
riors. I would be meek, humble, and sit at their feet that I 
might be as they are. They do not understand me, but if I am 
what my consciousness, my heart, lead me to feel — if I am not 
deceived — why then I can wait. Yes, patiently wait. Is not 
this the first time since I have been here that I -have recovered 
myself? Do I not feel that I have something to receive here, 
to add to, to increase my highest life, which I have never felt 
anywhere else ? 

" Is this sufficient to keep me here ? If I can prophesy, I 
must say no. I feel that it will not fill my capacity. O God ! 
strengthen my resolution. Let me not waver, and continue my 
life. But I am sinful. Oh, forgive my sins ! What shall I do, 
O Lord ! that they may be blotted out ? Lord, could I only 
blot them from my memory, nothing would be too great or too 
much." 

''July 18. — I have thought of my family this afternoon, and 
the happiness and love with which I might return to them. To 
leave them, to give up the thought of living with them again — 
can I entertain that idea ? Still, I cannot conceive how I can 
engage in business, share the practices, and indulge myself with 
the food and garmenture (sic^ of our home and city. To return 
home, were it possible for me, would most probably not only 
stop my progress, but put me back. 

" It is useless for me to speculate upon my future. Put 



Fruitlands. 85 



dependence on the spirit which leads me, be faithful to it ; work, 
and leave results to God. If the question should be asked me, 
whether I would give up my kindred and business and follow 
out this spirit-life, or return and enjoy them both, I could not 
hesitate a moment, for they would not compare — there would be 
no room for choice. What I do I must do, for it is not I that 
do it; it is the spirit. What that spirit may be is a question 
I cannot answer. What it leads me to do will be the only 
evidence of its character. I feel as impersonal as a stranger to it. 
I ask, Who are you ? Where are you going to take me ? Why 
me ? Why not some one else ? I stand amazed, astonished to 
see myself Alas ! I cry, who am I and what does this mean ? 
and I am lost in wonder." 

" Saturday, July 21. — Yesterday, after supper, a conversation 
took place between Mr. Alcott, Mr. Lane, and myself; the sub- 
ject was my position with regard to my family, my duty, and 
my position here. Mr. Alcott asked for my first impressions as 
regards the hindrances I have noted since coming here. I 
told him candidly they were: ist, his want of frankness ; 2d, his 
disposition to separateness rather than win co-operators with the 
aims in his own mind; 3d, his family, who prevent his immediate 
plans of reformation ; 4th, the fact that this place has very Httle 
fruit on it, while it was and is their desire that fruit should be 
the principal part of their diet; 5th, my fear that they have too 
decided a tendency toward literature and writing for the pros- 
perity and success of their enterprise. 

** My relations with my family are very critical at this period 
— more so than they have ever been. It is the crisis of the 
state we have been in for this past year. If God gives me 
strength to -be true to the spirit, it is very doubtful how far 
those at home will be willing to second it. I have written them 
a letter asking for their own aims and views of life, and I am 
anxious for their answer. The question of returning is not a 
wilful one with me, for it is the spirit which guides me. If it 
can Hve there, I go back. If not, I am governed and must fol- 
low w^here it leads, wherever that may be." 

The letter referred to in this entry of the diary is too long, 
and covers too much ground already traversed, to be quoted in 
full, but it contains some striking passages. It was written at 
Fruitlands, July 17, '43. After inquiring with his customary 



86 The Life of Father Hecker. 

directness what are their aims in Hfe and what they are doing 
to attain them, he goes on to say : 

"Although the idea or aim which each one aspires toward 
and tries to reahze will be colored by his own peculiar tenden- 
cies, still, in substance, in practice, they will agree if they are 
inspired by the self-same spirit." 

Here we have the practical good sense which reined in and 
directed Isaac Hecker throughout his life, making it finally im- 
possible for him not to see and recognize the visible Church, 
notwithstanding his mystical tendency, his want of thorough 
education, and his birthright of heresy. 

Again he writes : 

'• There are all the natural ties why we should not be 
separated, and no reasons why we should, unless there exists 
such a wide difference in the aims we seek to realize that it 
would be injurious or impossible for us to live in family, in unity, 
in love. I do not believe this difference exists, but if it does, and 
we are conscious of being led by a higher spirit than our own, 
we should and would sacrifice all that hinders us from the divine 
calling. That demands impHcit, uncompromising obedience. It 
speaks in the tone of high authority. The dead must bury their 
dead. That which offends it must be got rid of at all costs, be 
it wife, parents, children, brothers, sisters, or our own eye 
or hand. I do not contemplate a sacrifice of either of these ; 
still, it is well to consider whether, if such a demand should be 
made of us, we are in such a state of mind that we would be 
willing to give one or all up, if they should stand in the way 
of our progress toward God. . . . 

" If you desire to continue the way of life you have and do 
now lead, be plain, frank, and so express yourselves explicitly. If 
not, and you have any desire or intention in your minds to alter 
or make a radical change in your external circumstances for the 
sake of a higher, better mode of life, be equally open, and let 
me know all your thoughts and aspirations which are struggling 
for expression, for real life. . . . 

" We have labored together in union for material wealth ; 
can we now labor in the same way for spiritual wealth ? If 
there are sufficient points of accord in us in this higher life, we 
must come together and live in harmony. Since my departure 



Fruitlaiids. 87 



from home there has been a change in my mind, or, perhaps 
more truly, a sudden and rapid growth in a certain direction, 
the germs of which you must have heretofore perceived in my 
conduct and life. On the other hand, I suppose there has been 
a progress in your minds, and I feel that the time has arrived 
when we should see where we are, so that we may either come 
together or separate. Our future relation cannot be a wilful 
one. It must be based on a unity of spirit, for the social, the 
humane instincts cannot bind us together any longer. 
Have we the spiritual as well as the natural brotherhood ? 
this is the question which deeply concerns us now. ... I 
do not know what the spirit has done for you since my 
departure. If it has led you as it has led me, there is no 
reason why I should be amongst strangers by birth, although not 
altogether strangers in love . . . Think seriously upon you-r 
answer. Act true. Life is to me of serious import, and I feel 
called upon to give up all that hinders me from following this 
import wherever it may lead. But do not let this influence you 
in your judgments. We have but a short life to live here, and 
I would offer mine to some worthy end : this is all I desire. 
My health is very good. I am still at Fruitlands, and will 
remain here until something further happens. Accept my deep- 
est love." 

While waiting for an answer to this letter, the diary shows 
how continuously Isaac's mind was working over this problem of 
a final separation from his kindred. It seems probable that it 
was, on the whole, the deepest emotional one that he had to 
solve. Both filial duty and natural affection were strong senti- 
ments with him. One notices in these letters how courteous 
and urbane is the tone he uses, even when insisting most on the 
necessity which lies upon him to cut all the ties which bind 
him. This was a family trait. In a letter written to us last 
September in answer to a question, Mr. Charles A. Dana in- 
cidentally refers to a visit he paid Isaac Hecker at his mother's 
house. *' It was a very interesting family," he writes, " and the 
cordiality and sweetness of the relations which prevailed in it 
impressed me very greatly." 

The entry we are about to quote opens with an odd echo 
from a certain school of mysticism with which Isaac about this 
time became familiar : 



88 The Life of Father Hecker. 

^^ July 22, 1843. — Man requires a new birth — the birth of the 
feminine in him. 

" The question arises in my mind whether it is necessary for 
me to require the concurrence of my brothers in the views of 
Hfe which now appear to demand of me their actuahzation. 

*' Can I not adopt simple g-armenture and diet without their 
doing so ? Must I needs have their concurrence ? Can I not 
leave results to themselves ? If my life is purer than that of 
those around me, can I not trust to its own simple influence ? 

'' But if there is a great difference of spirit, can we live to- 
gether ? Does not like seek like ? In money matters things 
must certainly be other than they have been. We must agree 
that no accounts shall be kept between ourselves, let the con- 
sequences be what they may. I would rather suffer evils from a 
dependence on the spirit of love than permit that of selfishness 
to exist between us. I ask not a cent above what will supply 
my immediate, necessary wants. . . They may demand ten 
times more than I, and it would be a happiness to me to see 
them use it, even if I thought they used it wrongfully. All the 
check I would be wilhng to employ would be that of love and 
mutual good feeling. If I remain as I now am, I shall require 
very little, and that Httle would be spent for the benefit and 
help of others. 

'^ July 23. — I will go home, be true to the spirit with the 
help of God, and wait for further light and strength. ... I 
feel that I cannot live at this place as I would. This is not the 
place for my soul. . . My life is not theirs. They have been 
the means of giving me much light on myself, but I feel I 
would live and progress more in a different atmosphere." 

On the 25th of July Isaac finally departed from Fruitlands, 
and after remaining for a few days at Brook Farm, he returned 
to his home in New York. Before following him thither, it may 
be well to give at once such further references to this period of 
his life as are contained in the memoranda. The following ex- 
tract is undated : 

" A propos of Emerson's death, Father Hecker said : * I knew 
him well. When I resolved to become a Catholic I was board- 
ing at the house of Henry Thoreau's mother, a stone's-throw 
from Emerson's at Concord.' " 

''What did Thorcau say about it?" 



Friiitlaiids. 89 



*' 'What's the use of your joinin^r the Catholic Church? Can't 
you get along without hanging to her skirts?' I suppose Emer- 
son found it out from Thoreau, so he tried his best to get me 
out of the notion. He invited me to tea with him, and he kept 
leading up to the subject and I leading away from it. The next 
day he asked me to drive over with him to the Shakers, some 
fifteen miles. We stayed over night, and all the way there and 
back he was fishing for my reasons, with the plain purpose of 
dissuading me. Then Alcott and he arranged matters so that 
they cornered me in a sort of interview, and Alcott frankly 
developed the subject. I finally said, * Mr. Alcott, I deny your 
inquisitorial right in this matter,' and so they let it drop. One 
day, however, I was walking along the road and Emerson joined 
me. Presently he said, ' Mr. Hecker, I suppose it was the art, 
the architecture, and so on in the Catholic Church which led 
you to her?' 'No,' said I; 'but it was what caused all that' 
I was the first to break the Transcendental camp. Brownson 
came some time after me. 

" Years later, during the war, I went to Concord to lecture, 
and wanted Emerson to help me get a hall. He refused. 

" Alcott promised that he would, but he did not, and I think 
Emerson dissuaded him. After a time, however, a priest, a church, 
and a congregation of some six or seven hundred Catholics 
grew up in Concord, and I was invited to lecture, and I went. 
The pastor attended another station that Sunday, and I said the 
Mass and meant to give a homily by way of sermon. But as I 
was going to the altar, all vested for the Mass, two men came 
into my soul : one, the man who lived in that village in former 
years, a blind man, groping about for light, a soul with every 
problem unsolved ; the other a man full of light, with every 
problem solved, the universe and the reason of his existence 
known as they actually are. Well, there were those two men in 
my soul. I had to get rid of them, ^o I preached them off to 
the people. Some wept, some laughed, all were deeply moved. 
That night came the lecture. It rained pitchforks and pineapples, 
but the hall, a large one, was completely filled. Multitudes of 
Yankees were there. Emerson was absent, but Alcott was pre- 
sent. I had my lecture all cut and dried. 'Why I became a 
Catholic ' was the subject. But as I was about to begin, up 
came those two men again, and for the life of me I couldn't 
help firing them off at the audience, and with remarkable effect. 



go The Life of Father Hecker. 

Next day I met Emerson in the street and we had a httle talk 
together. None of those men are comfortable in conversation 
with an intelHgent Catholic. He avoided my square look, and 
actually kept turning to avoid my eyes until he had quite turned 
round ! Such men, confronted with actual, certain convictions 
are exceedingly uncomfortable. They feel in subjection to you. 
They cannot bear the steadfast glance of a man of certain prin- 
ciples any better than a dog can the look of his master. Like 
a dog, they turn away the head and show signs of uneasiness." 

From the memoranda, also, we take this reminiscence of 
George Ripley, the man whom Father Hecker loved best of all 
the Transcendental party: 

''January 23, 1885. — Seeing my perplexity at Brook Farm, 
George Ripley said, 'Mr. Hecker, do you think we have not got 
true religion ? If you think so, say so. If you have views you 
think true, and which we ought to have, let us hear them.' I 
answered, ' No ; I haven't the truth, but I am trying to get it. 
If I ever succeed, you will hear from me. If I don't, you never 
will. I am not going to teach before I am certain myself. I 
will not add myself to the list of humbugs.' 

"Ripley was a great man; a wonderful man. But he was a 
complete failure. I loved him dearly, and he knew it, and he 
loved me ; I know well he did. When I came back a Redemp- 
torist from Europe, I went to see him at the Tribune office. 
He asked me, 'Can you do all that any Catholic priest can do?' 
*Yes.' 'Then I will send for you when I am drawing towards 
my end.' 

" Indeed, if one could have gone to Ripley, at any time 
in his later years, and said, ' You will never return again to 
the society of men,' and persuaded him it was true, he would 
have said at once, ' Send for Father Hecker or some other 
Catholic priest' I am {persuaded that the fear of facing his 
friends hindered George Ripley from becoming a Catholic. He 
sent for me when taken down by his last illness, but his 
message was not delivered. As soon as I heard that he was 
ill I hastened to his bedside, but his mind was gone and I 
could do nothing for him." 

And now, having given so fully such of his own impressions 
as remain of the persons and places which helped to shape 
Father Hecker in early manhood, we will terminate the record 



Fruitlands. g ; 



of this period with two letters, one from each community, which 
were written him soon after his return to New York. No words 
of our own could show so well the hearty affection and implicit 
trust which he awakened and returned : 

•' Brook Farm, September i8, 1843. — MY DEAR FRIEND : I was 
rejoiced to hear from you, though you wrote too short a letter. 
Your beautiful fruit, enough to convert the direst sceptic to 
Grahamism, together with the pearled wheat, arrived safely, 
although a few days too late to be in perfectly good order. We 
distributed them to all and singular, men, women, and children, 
who discussed them with great interest, I assure you ; many, no 
doubt, with silent wishes that no good or beautiful thing might 
ever be wanting to you. I am glad to learn that you are so 
happy in New York, that you find so much in your own mind 
to compensate for the evils of a city environment, and that your 
aspirations are not quenched by the sight of the huge disorders 
that daily surround you. I hardly dare to think that my own 
faith or hope would be strong enough to reconcile me to a 
return to common society. I should pine like an imprisoned bird, 
and I fear I should grow blind to the visions of lovehness and 
glory which the future promises to humanity. I long for action 
which shall realize the prophecies, fulfil the Apocalypse, bring 
the new Jerusalem down from heaven to earth, and collect the 
faithful into a true and holy brotherhood. To attain this con- 
summation so devoutly to be wished, I would eat no flesh, I 
would drink no wine while the world lasted. I would become as 
devoted an ascetic as yourself, my dear Isaac. But to what end 
is all speculation, all dreaming, all questioning, but to advance 
humanity, to bring forward the manifestation of the Son of God ? 
Oh, for men who feel this idea burning into their bones ! When 
shall we see them ? And without them, what will be phalanxes, 
groups and series, attractive industry, and all the sublime words 
of modern reforms ? 

*' When will you come back to Brook Farm ? Can you do 
without us ? Can we do without you ? But do not come as an 
amateur, a self-perfectionizer, an aesthetic self-seeker, willing to 
suck the orange of Association dry and throw away the peel. 
Oh ! that you would come as one of us, to work in the faith of a 
divine idea, to toil in loneliness and tears for the sake of the 
kingdom which God may build up by our hands. All here, that 
is, all our old central members, feel more and more the spirit 
of devotedness, the thirst to do or die, for the cause we have 
at heart. We do not distrust Providence. We cannot believe 
that what we have gained here of spiritual progress will be lost 
through want of material resources. At present, however, we 



92 The Life of Father Hecker. 

are in great straits. We hardly dare to provide the means of 
keeping warm in our pleasant nest this winter. 

*' Just look at our case. With property amounting to $30,- 
000, the want of two or three thousands fetters us and may kill 
us. That sum would free us from pecuniary embarrassment, and 
for want of that we work daily with fetters on our limbs. Are 
there not five men in New York City who would dare to ven- 
ture $200 each in the cause of social reform, without being 
assured of a Phalanx for themselves and their children for ever ? 
Alas ! I know not. We are willing to traverse the wilderness 
forty years ; we ask no grapes of Eshcol for ourselves ; we 
do not claim a fair abode in the promised land ; but what can 
we do, with neither quails nor manna, with raiment waxing old, 
and shoes bursting from our feet ? 

'* Forgive me, my dear Isaac, for speaking so much about 
ourselves. But what else should I speak of? And who more 
sympathizing with our movement than yourself? 

** Do not be surprised at receiving this letter so long after 
date. Not less than four times have I begun it, and as often 
have been interrupted. Pray write me now and then. Your 
words are always sweet and pleasant to my soul. Believe me, 
ever yours truly, George Ripley." 

f Harvard, Mass., November 11, 1843. — DEAR Friend: Your 
kind letter of the ist came duly to hand, and we are making 
arrangements to enjoy the benefit of your healthful bequest. 

" Please to accept thanks for your sympathy and the reports 
of persons and things in your circle. They have interested me 
much, but I am about to make you the most incongruous return 
conceivable. For pleasure almost unqualified which you have con- 
ferred on me, I fear I shall trouble you with painful relations ; in 
return for a barrel of superfine wholesome wheat-meal, I am going 
to submit to you a peck of troubles. Out of as many of these 
as you lovingly and freely can, you may assist me; but, of 
course, you will understand that I feel I have no claim upon 
you. On the contrary, indeed, I see that I run the hazard of 
forfeiting your valued friendship by thus obtruding my pecuniary 
concerns into our hitherto loftier communings. You know it to 
be a sentiment of mine that these affairs should never be 
obtruded between aesthetic friends, but what can one do in ex- 
tremity but to unburden candidly to the generous ? 

•"When I bought this place, instead of paying the whole 
$1,800, as I wished, $300 of my money went to pay old debts 
with which I ought to have had nothing to do; and Mrs. Alcott's 
brother, Samuel J. May, joined his name to a note for $300, to 
be paid by instalments in two years. And now that the first 
instalment is due, he sends me word that he declines paying it. 



Fruitlands. 93 



As all my cash has been expended in buying and keeping up 
the affair, I am left in a precarious position, out of which I do 
not see the way without some loveful aid, and to you I venture 
freely to submit my feelings. Above all things I should like to 
discharge at once this $300 note, as unless that is done the place 
must, I fear, fall back into individuality and the idea be sus- 
pended. Now, if as much cash is loose in your pocket, or that 
of some wealthy friend, there shall be parted off as much of the 
land as will secure its return, from the crops alone, in a few 
years ; or, I would sell a piece until I can redeem it ; or, I 
would meet the loan in any other secure way, if I can but 
secure the land from the demon usury. This mode seems to me 
the most desirable. But I could get along with the instalment 
of $75, and would offer like security in proportion. Or, if you 
can do it yourself, and would prefer the library as a pledge, you 
shall select such books as will suit your own reading and would 
cover your advance in cash any day you choose to put them up 
to auction, if I should fail to redeem them. Or, I would give my 
notes of hand that I could meet by sales of produce or of land. 
If I had the benefit of your personal counsel, we could contrive 
something between us, I am sure, but I have no such aid about 
me. The difficulty in itself is really light, but to me, under 
present circumstances, is quite formidable. If at your earliest 
convenience you acquaint me with your mind, you will much 
oblige. 

** I have another trouble of a personal nature. I suffer already 
this winter from the inclemency of the weather, so much that 
my hands are so chapped that I can scarcely hold the pen. If 
I could find employment in a more southern position that would 
support me and the boy, and leave a little to be applied to the 
common good, I would undertake it. I think I could at the 
same time be of some mental and moral service to the people 
where I might be located. 

"Another trouble. Young William has been very ill for the 
last month; brought on, I believe, by excessive work. He is 
still very weak, and has not sat up for three weeks. 

" All these, besides sundry slighter plagues, coming upon 
me at once, have perhaps a little disconcerted my nerves, and 
the advice and assistance of a generous friend at such a junc- 
ture would be indeed serviceable. If the journey were not so 
long and so costly I would ask you to come. Be assured that 
whatever may be your decision in any of these relations, my 
esteem for you cannot be thereby diminished. My only fear 
is that such encroachments on your good nature will reduce 
your estimation of, dear friend, yours most sincerely, 

Charles Lane. 



94 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" Regards to the Doctor and all friends. The Shakers have 
kindly inquired for you, and they still take much interest in 
our life. Have you seen the last Dial? The Present is good, 
but surely not good enough. I hope to write a more universal 
letter in response to your next, for which I wait." 

Poor Lane, failing to find any equally confiding and gen- 
erous friend to shoulder with him the personal debts of the 
founder of Fruitlands, was compelled at last to let the farm 
"lapse into individuality" and to see ** the idea suspended." 
In his next and "more universal letter" he announces that 
the experiment is ended in consequence of Mrs. Alcott's refusal 
to remain on the place through the winter. Lane went over 
to the neighboring Shaker community, and from there to 
England, where Father Hecker met him during his own re- 
sidence at Clapham, after his ordination. His letters followed 
Father Hecker for several years, and breathe always the same 
unselfishness, the same simple trust in human goodness, and 
the same fondness for speculations on "the universal." 




CHAPTER IX. 

SELF-QUESTIONINGS. 

NOT finding any solution of his spiritual difficulties at either 
Fruitlands or Brook Farm, Isaac Hecker turned his face once 
more toward the home from which he had departed nearly a 
year before. He expected little from this step, but his state of 
mind was now one in which he had begun to anticipate, at any turn, 
some light on the dispositions of Providence in his regard w^hich 
might determine his course for good and all. And, meantime, as 
patient waiting w^as all that lay in his own power, it seemed 
the wisest course to yield to the sohcitations of his kindred and 
abide results in his own place. He did not go there at once, 
however, after quitting Alcott's community, but returned to Brook 
Farm for a fortnight. His journal during this period offers many 
pages worthy of transcription. 

It is possible that we have readers who may deem us too 
copious in our quotations from this source. But, if wearisome to 
any, yet they are necessary to those for whom this Life is espe- 
cially written. The lessons to be learned from Father Hecker 
are mainly those arising from the interaction between God's super- 
natural dealings with him, and his own natural characteristics. 
This fact, moreover, is typical as well as personal, for the great 
question of his day, which was the dawning of our own, was the 
relation of the natural man to the regenerating influences of 
Christianity. This being so, it is plain to our o\v-n mind that no 
adequate representation of the man could be made without a 
free use of these early journals. They seem to us one of the 
chief Providential results of the spiritual isolation of his youth. 
He was in a manner driven to this intimate self-communing, on 
one hand by his never-satisfied craving for sympathetic compan- 
ionship, and on the other by his complete unacquaintance with 
a kind of reading w^hich even at this point might have shed some 
Hght upon his interior difficulties. In later years he enjoyed, in 
the study of accredited Christian mystics, that kind of satisfac- 
tion which a traveller experiences who, after long wanderings in 
what had seemed a trackless desert, obtains a map which not 
only makes his whole route plain, but assures him that he did 
not stray from well-knov/n paths even during his times of most 
extreme bewilderment. 

95 



g6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

That the diary has the character we here claim for it, and is 
not the mere ordinary result of a morbid and aimless introspec- 
tion, is plainly shown by the speedy cessation of excessive 
self-analysis on Father Hecker's part, after he had actually 
reached the goal to which he was at this period alternately 
sweetly led and violently driven. But it is also shown by the 
deep humility which is revealed precisely by this sharp probing 
of his interior. Though he felt himself in touch with God in 
some special way, yet it was with so little pride that it was his 
profound conviction, as it remained, indeed, throughout his life, 
that what he had all had or might have. But the study of his 
interior thus forced upon him was far from a pleasing task. *' It 
is exceedingly oppressive to me to write as I now do," we find 
him complaining ; " continually does myself appear in my writing. 
I would that my / were wholly lost in the sea of the Spirit — ' 
wholly lost in God." 

We preface the subjoined extract from the diary with the re- 
mark that Father Hecker's reading of signs of the Divine will in 
men and events often brought him to the verge of credulity, over 
which he was prevented from stepping by his shrewd native 
sense. Though he insisted all his life on interpreting them as 
signal flags of the Divine wisdom, this did not hinder him from 
gaining a reputation for sound practical judgment: 

^^ Brook Farm, July 31, 1843. — Man is the symbol of all mys- 
teries. Why is it that all things seem to me to be instinct with 
prophecy? I do not see any more individual personalities, but 
priests and oracles of God. The age is big with a prophecy 
which it is in labor to give birth to." 

" My experience is different now from what it has been. It is 
much fuller; every fibre of my being seems teeming with sensi- 
tive life. I am in another atmosphere of sentiment and thought. 
. . . I have less real union and sympathy with her, and with 
those whom I have met much nearer heretofore. It appears as 
if their atmosphere was denser, their life more natural, more in 
the flesh. Instead of meeting them on my highest, I can only 
do so by coming down into my body, of which it seems to me 
that I am now almost unconscious. There is not that sense of 
heaviness, dulness, fleshliness, in me. I experience no natural 
desires, no impure thoughts, nor wanderings of fancy. Still, I 



^(^V- Questionings. 97 



feel more intensely, and am filled to overflowing with love, and 
with desire for union. But there is no one to meet me where I 
am, and I cannot meet them where they are." 

All his life Father Hecker was on the lookout for the great 
human influences which run across those of religion, either to 
swell their volume or to lessen tneir force. These are mainly 
the transmissions of heredity, and the environments that are racial, 
temporal, epochal, or local. This enduring tendency is fore- 
shadowed in the following extracts : 

''August 2, 1843. — I have been thinking much of late about 
the very great influence which nationality and the family progen- 
itors have upon character. Men talk of universality, impartiality, 
many-sidedness, free judgment, unbiased opinion, and so on, 
when in reality their national and family dispositions are the 
centre and ground of their being, and hence of their opinions. 
They appear to be most themselves when they show these traits 
of character. They are most natural and earnest and at home 
when they speak from this link which binds them to the past. 
Then their hearts are opened, and they speak with a glow of 
eloquence and a peculiar unction which touch the same chord in 
the breasts of those who hear them. It is well for man to feel 
his indebtedness to the past which lives in him and without 
which he would not be what he is. He is far more its creature 
than he gives himself credit for. He reproduces daily the senti- 
ments and thoughts of the dim and obscure before. There are 
certain ideas and aspirations which have not had their fulfilment, 
but which run through all men from the beginning and which 
are continually reproduced. There is a unity of race, called 
Humanity; one of place, called Nationality; one of birth, called 
Kindred; on€ of affinity, called Love and Friendship. By all 
these we are greatly influenced. They all make their mark upon 
the man." 

'' The faculties which take cognizance of the Inner world have 
been awakened in only a few of the human race, and these, to 
distinguish them, have been called prophets, miracle-workers. 
Providential men, seers, and poets. Now, their privilege is that 
of all men in a greater or less degree, just as is the case with 
regard to the faculties which relate to the outward world. For 
when men in general were as ignorant about the exterior world 
as they now are about the interior, the men of science, the 



gS The Life of Father Hecker. 

astronomers, the mathematicians, the founders of the arts, were 
held to be miraculous, gods, and they were deified. What any 
one man (and this is a most comfortable and cheering thought) 
has been or has done, all men may in a measure be or do, for 
each is a type, a specimen of the whole human race. If it is 
said in reply, * These miracles or great acts, which you hold as 
actual, are mere superstitious dreams,' I care not. That would 
be still more glorious for us, for then they are still to be per- 
formed, they are in the coming time, these divine prophetic 
instincts are yet to be actualized. The dreams of Orpheus, the 
inspired strains of the Hebrew bards, and, above all, the prophe- 
cies of Christ, are before us. The divine instincts will be realized 
as surely as there is a God above who inspires them. It is the 
glory of God that they should be so; it is His delight. This 
world must become heaven. This is its destiny ; and our destiny, 
under God, is to make it so. Prophecy is given to encourage 
and nourish our hopes and feed our joys, so that we may say 
with Job, ' I know that although worms shall eat this flesh, and 
my bones become dust, yet at the latter day I shall see my 
Redeemer face to face.' " 

The sentences which follow can be paralleled by words taken 
from all who have truly interpreted the doctrine of Christ by their 
lives or their writings: 

" To him that has faith all things are possible, for faith is 
an act of the soul; thy faith is the measure of thy power." 

" If men would act from the present inspiration of their souls 
they would gain more knowledge than they do by reading or 
speculating." 

" No man in his heart can ask for more than he has. Think 
of this deeply. God is just. We have what we ought to have, 
even according to our own sense of justice." 

"The desire to love and be beloved, to have friends with 
whom we can converse, to enter society which we enjoy — is it 
not best to deny and sacrifice these desires ? It may be said 
that, gratified, they add to life, and the question is how to 
increase life, not how to diminish it. But by denying them, 
would not our hfe gain by flowing in a more heavenly di- 
rection ? " 

"■ We are daily feeding the demons that are in us by our 



Self- Questionings. 99 



wicked thoughts and sinful acts ; these are their meat and drink. 
I make them gasp sometimes. My heart laughs quite merrily to 
think of it. When I am hungry, and there is something tempt- 
ing on the table, hunger, like a serpent, comes creeping up into 
my throat and laps its dry tongue with eagerness for its prey, 
but it often returns chagrined at its, discomfiture." 

'' That which tempts us we should deny, no matter how 
innocent it is in itself. If it tempts, away with it, until it tempts 
no more. Then partake of it, for it is then only that you can 
do so prudently and with temperance." 

''AH our thoughts and emotions are caused by some agent 
acting on us. This is true of all the senses and the spiritual 
faculties. Hence we should by all possible means purify and 
refine our organism, so that we may hear the most delicate, the 
sweetest, the stillest sounds and murmurings of the angels who 
are about us. How much fuller and richer would be our life if 
we were more acutely sensitive and finely textured ! How many 
exquisite delights nature yields which we are not yet aware of! 
What a world surrounds us of which none but holy men, 
prophets, and poets have had a glimpse ! " 

"The soul is a plate on which the senses daguerreotype 
indelibly pictures of the outer world. How cautious should we 
be where we look, what we hear, what smell, or feel, or taste ! 
And how we should endeavor that all around us should be made 
beautiful, musical, fragrant, so that our souls may be awakened 
to a divine sense of life without a moment's interruption!" 

'' O God, be Thou my helper, my strength and my redeemer! 
May I live wholly to Thee ; give me grace and obedience to 
Thy Spirit. May all self be put from me so that I may enter 
into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Awaken me, raise 
me up, restore me, O Jesus Christ, Lord, Heavenly King!" 

In reading what next follows it must be remembered that at 
the time when it was written Isaac Hecker had absolutely no 
knowledge of Catholic mystical theology. It is since that day 
that English-speaking Catholics have had access to the great 
authorities on this subject through adequate translations. But 



100 The Life of Father Hecker. 

what little he had learned from other sources, combined with 
his own intuitional and experimental knowledge of human capa- 
bilities for penetrating the veil, had already furnished him with 
conclusions which nothing in his devoted study of Catholic mys- 
tical writers forced him to lay aside : 

*' Belief in the special guidance of God has been the faith of 
all deeply religious men. I will not dispute the fact that some 
men are so guided, but will offer an explanation of it which 
seems to me to reconcile it with the regular order of laws estab- 
lished by God. My explanation would be that this guidance is 
not a miraculous power, specially bestowed upon some men, but 
merely a higher degree of ordinary divine guidance. Our ordi- 
nary life is inspired ; the other is only a higher degree of what 
is common to all. The evil which arises from the contrary 
opinion is this : men who have received a higher degree of 
insight believe that it is a special miraculous gift, and that all 
they may say is infallibly true, whereas they still retain their 
own individuality though raised to a purer state of being. 
They have not been so raised in order to found new sects, or 
to cause revolutions, but to fulfil the old, continue and .carry it 
on as far as they have been given light to do so. In forming 
new sects they but reproduce their own individualities with all 
their errors. So Swedenborg did, and Wesley, men of modern 
times who were awakened in a greater degree than the mass of 
their fellows. Their mistake lay in their attempt to make 
universal ends out of their individual experiences. In the ordi- 
nary state no man does this, but these, being lifted a little 
above the mass, became intoxicated. The only one, so far as I 
have read, who has had humility equal to his inspiration was 
Jacob Boehmen. Luther, Calvin, Fox, Penn, Swedenborg, Wesley, 
had self in view. Selfism is mixed with their universalism. None 
has spoken truth so pure and universal as Boehmen. He is the 
most inspired man of modern times. He had more love and 
truth than all the other mystics put together, and fewer faults 
than either one of them taken singly." 



CHAPTER X, 



AT HOME AGAIN. 



IT was the middle of August, 1843, when Isaac Hecker once 
more took up his residence with his family in New York. His 
first endeavor was to sink back again as far as possible into the 
old routine of business. 

'* To-morrow I commence to work," he writes on the evening 
of his return. *' My interior state is quiet and peaceful. I have 
not met any one yet. My dear mother understands me better 
than any one else. How far business will interfere with my inner 
life remains to be seen. O Lord ! help me to keep my resolution, 
which is not to let the world enter my heart, but to keep it 
looking toward Thee ! My heart has been in a constant prayer- 
ful state since I have been at home. It is busy in its own 
sanctuary, its own temple, God. O Lord ! preserve it." 

One of the first noteworthy things revealed by the diary — 
which from this time on was kept with less regularity than before — 
is that Isaac not only maintained his abstemious habits after his 
return, but increased their rigor. For a robust man, working 
hard for many hours out of every twenty-four, and deprived of 
all the pleasant relaxations, literary, conversational and musical, 
to which he had been accustoming himself for many months, the 
choice of such a diet as is described in the following sentences 
was certainly extraordinary : 

^^ August 30. — If the past nine months or more are any evi- 
dence, I find that I can live on very simple diet — grains, fruit, 
and nuts. I have just commenced to eat the latter; I drink 
pure water. So far I have had wheat ground and made into un- 
leavened bread, but as soon as we get in a new lot, I shall try 
it in the grain." 

He had evidently at this time a practical conviction of the 
truth of a principle which, in after years, he repeated to the 
present writer in the form of a maxim of the transcendentalists : 
** A gross feeder will never be a central thinker." It is a truth of 
the spiritual no less than of the intellectual order. A little later we 



I02 The Life of Father Hecker. 

come upon the following profession of a vegetarian faith, which 
will be apt to amuse as well as to edify the reader: 

" Reasons for not eating aniTnal food. 

*' It does not feed the spirit. 

" It stimulates the propensities. 

'' It is taking animal life when the other kingdoms offer suffi- 
cient and better increment. 

" Slaughter strengthens the lower instincts. 

"■ It is the chief cause of the slavery of the kitchen. 

"■ It generates in the body the diseases animals are subject to, 
and encourages in man their bestiality. 

'' Its odor is offensive and its appearance unsesthetic." 

The apprehension under which he had labored, that city life 
would present many temptations which he would find it difficult 
to withstand, appears to have been unfounded. Some few social 
relaxations he now and then permitted himself, but they were 
mostly very sober-toned. *' Last evening I attended a Methodist 
love-feast," is his record of one of these. '' In returning I 
stopped at the ward poHtical meeting." Then he notes that 
although the business he follows is especially full of temptations — 
as no doubt it was to a man keeping so tight a rein over his 
most natural and legitimate appetites — he feels deeply grateful 
that, so far, he has had no need to fear his being led away. 
*^ What yet remains ? " he adds. '' My diet is all purchased and 
all produced by hired labor. I suppose that slave labor pro- 
duces almost all my dress. And I cannot say that I am rightly 
conditioned until all I eat, drink, and wear is produced by love." 

It was a vivid recollection of these early efforts after an ascetic 
perfection which had neither guide nor definite plan, which 
prompted the following vigorous self-appreciation, made by Father 
Hecker two years before his death. He had been speaking of 
some of his youthful experiments in this direction, and ended 
with an amused laugh and the ejaculation, 

"■ Thank God ! He led me into the Catholic Church. If it 
hadn't been for that I should have been one of the worst cranks 
in the world." 

Here are two expressions taken from the diary of a per- 



At Ho?ne Agaift. 103 



manent fact of Father Heckcr's individuality. They help to 
explain why he was misunderstood by many in later years : 

'* Men have fear to utter absurdities. The head is sceptical 
of the divine oracles of the heart, and before she utters them 
she clothes them in such a fantastic dress that men hear the 
words but lose the life, the thought." 

" We often act to be understood by the heart, not by the 
head ; and when the head speaks of its having understood, we 
deny its understanding. It is the secret sympathy of the heart 
which is the only response that is looked for. Speech is cold, 
profane." 

This must recall, to those who were intimate with Father 
Hecker, how often he arrived at his own convictions by discuss- 
ing them with others while they were yet but partially formed. 
It is a custom with many to do so, mind assisting mind, nega- 
tion provoking affirmation, doubt vanishing with the utterance 
of the truth. In Father Hecker's case his perfect frankness led 
him, w4ien among his own friends, to utter half-formed ideas, 
sometimes sounding startling and erroneous, but spoken with a 
view to get them into proper shape. At such times it required 
patience to know just what he meant, for he never found it the 
easiest to employ terms whose meaning was conventional. 

By the first of September such faint hopes as Isaac had 
entertained of adapting himself to the conditions of his home in 
New York were well-nigh dissipated. But a certain natural 
timidity, joined with the still complete uncertainty he felt as to 
what his true course should be, made him dissemble his disquiet 
so long as it was bearable. After a month or two, by a mutual 
agreement between his brothers and himself which exonerated 
him from much of the manual labor which they still shared with 
the men in their employment, he devoted himself to an occupa- 
tion more accordant to his mind. He set to work to make 
single beds and private rooms for the workmen, contriving various 
conveniences and means of occasional solitude for them, and in 
other ways doing all in his power to achieve for them the pri- 
vileges he found so necessary for himself Of these efforts we 
get occasional ghmpses in the diary. But it is, in the main, 
devoted to more impersonal and larger topics, and the facts of 
his daily employment, as just given, have been gained from other 
sources. 



104 The Life of Father Hecker. 

*' September i. — There are two ways in which the spirit may- 
live itself out. One is to leave all these conditions, purchase a 
spot of ground, and live according to its daily dictates. The 
other is to make these conditions as harmonic as possible by 
giving the men " (workmen) ^' an associative interest in the 
accumulations of our associative labor. Both extremes require 
renunciation of property and of self Love, universal love is the 
ruler, and only by it can the spirit find peace or be crowned 
with the highest happiness." 

'' The mystery of man's being, the unawakened capacities in 
him, we are not half aware of A few of the race, the prophets, 
sages, and poets, give us a glimpse of his high destiny. Alas ! 
that men should be on the borders of such mighty truths and 
stand as blind and dumb as lower animals before them ! " 

" Balaam sometimes, but ignorantly, utters true prophecies. 
A remark I heard to-day leads me to say this. Speaking of 
diet a man said : * Why, what do you intend ? At last you will 
have men to hve on God.' We must become God -like, or God- 
full. Live as He lives, become one with Him. Until we are 
reconciled with our Father we are aliens, prodigals. Until we 
can say. My Father and I are one, we have not commenced to 
be. We must fulfil what the Apostle said (and it means, per- 
haps, more than we commonly imagine) : ' In God we live and 
move and have our being.' " 

" The deeper and more profound a truth is, the less proof 
can you give in its support." 

" September 8. — On the evening of the 6th I went to see the 
French Opera Company in Auber's 'Black Domino.' It did not 
please me as well as some music I have heard, though parts of 
it were very beautiful. The hymns of the nuns were very 
sweet. The thought occurred to me that if the Church does 
not provide religious gratifications for the true wants of humanity, 
she must be silent if men feed them profanely. It is because 
the Church has not done her duty that there are so many 
secular societies for Reformation, Temperance, and so on. The 
Church has provided for the salvation of the sinner's soul by 
means of spiritual acts, such as prayer, penance, the Eucharist 



At Home Again. 105 



and other sacraments. But now she must provide terrestrial 
sacraments for the salvation and transfiguration of the body." 

" We should strive constantly to actualize the ideal we per- 
ceive. When we do realize all the beauty and holiness that we 
see, we are not called to deny ourselves, for then we are living 
as fully on all sides as we have capacity to do. Are we not in 
this state ? Then, if we are sincere, we will give up lower and 
unnecessary gratifications for the sake of the ideal we have in 
view. 

'' I would die to prove my immortality." 

" At times we are called to rely on Providence, to be im- 
prudent and reckless according to the wisdom of the world. So 
I am willing to be thought. Each of us has an individual char- 
acter to act out, tmder the iiispiration of God, and this is the 
highest and noblest we can do. We are forms differing from one 
another, and if we are acting under the inspirations of the High- 
est, we are doing our uttermost ; more the angels do not. What 
tends to hinder us from realizing the ideal which our vision sees 
must be denied, be it self, wealth, opinion, or death." 

*' The Heart says, ' Be all that you can.' The Intellect says, 
* When you are all that you can be — what then ? ' " 

" Infinite love is the basis of the smallest act of love, and 
when we love with our whole being, we are in and one 
with God." 

'' Increase thy love by being true to that thou hast if thou 
wouldst be nearer to God." 

** To love is to lose one's self and gain God. To be all in 
love is to be one with God." 

" When the Spirit begets us, we are no more ; the Spirit is, 
and there is nothing else." 

" There is much debauchery in speaking wilfully. 

" Every act of self is sin, is a lie. 

"■ The Spirit will lead you into solitude and silence if it has 
something to teach you. 

" You must be born again to know the truth. It cannot be 
inculcated. 



io6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

^' To educate is to bring forth, not to put in. To put in is 
death ; to flow out is Hfe." 

Lest the reader may have got an impression, from any of 
the extracts already given, that Isaac Hecker was puffed up by 
the pride of his own innocence, we transcribe what follows. It 
shows that he did not fall under the Apostle's condemnation: 
** If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
truth is not in us." It was written on the last Sunday of Sep- 
tember, and, after this long outpouring of confession, longing, 
and weakness, the diary was not again resumed for nearly a 
month. The desire expressed in its second paragraph for the 
kind of spiritual refreshment which in after years he so often 
enjoyed under the name of a *' retreat," seems noteworthy. 

^'September 24, 1843. — -The human heart is wicked above all 
things. The enemy of man is subtle and watchful beyond con- 
ception. Instead of being on the way of goodness, I am just 
finding out the wickedness of my nature, its crookedness, its im- 
purity, its darkness. I want deep humihty and forgetfulness of 
self I am just emerging out of gross darkness and my sight is 
but dim, so that my iniquities are not wholly plain to my vision. 

"■ At present I feel as if a week of quiet silence would be the 
means of opening more deeply the still flowing fountains of divine 
life. I would cut off all relations but that of my soul with the 
Spirit — all others seem intrusions, worldly, frivolous. The in- 
pouring of the Spirit is checked by so much attention to other 
than divine things. In the bustle and noisy confusion its voice 
is unheard. 

'' I feel that one of my greatest weaknesses, because it leads 
me to so much sin, is my social disposition. It draws me so 
often into perilous conversations, and away from silence and 
meditation with the Spirit. Lately I have felt almost ready to 
say that good works are a hindrance to the gate of heaven. 
Pride and self-approbation are so often mixed with them. I feel 
that nothing has been spoken against the vain attempt to trust 
in good works which my soul does not fully accord with. This 
is a new, a very new experience for me." 

The foregoing must be understood in the sense of good 
works hindering better works. Isaac Hecker felt his noblest as- 



A^ Home Again, 10/ 



pirations to be, for the moment at any rate, towards solitude 
and the passive state of prayer ; and in this he was hindered by 
the urgency of his zeal for the propagation of philanthropic 
schemes and his great joy in communing with men whom he 
hoped to find like-minded with himself The time came when 
he was able to join the two states, the inner purifying the outer 
man and directing his energies by the instinct of the Holy Spirit. 
This entry goes on as follows : 

" By practice of our aspirations, ideals, and visions, we con- 
vert them into real being. 

**We should be able to say, 'Which of you convinceth me 
of sin ? ' before we are fit to preach to others in such a way 
that our preaching may have a practical effect upon society. 

"■ Did all our efforts flow into realizing the teachings of 
the Spirit, we should do much more good and be greater in 
the sight of God than we are now by so much speaking and 
writing. But let us be watchful that the pride of good works 
does not take the place of that of speaking and writing. 

" By our sins and many weaknesses we are prevented from 
entering the Promised Land, and must die just in sight of it. 
Instead of being humble, willing, and self-denying in our youth, 
and being led by the Spirit of God, we keep on in the spirit 
of the world and give all the substance of our being to its 
service. And when we are nearly worn out we flee to God, and 
die, perhaps, in sight of heaven, instead of having been among 
its inhabitants, living in it upon earth, in the full bloom of our 
youthful joy of life. 

" The Lord has been good to me and my heart is filled 
with His warm love. Blessed be Thou, O God ! for Thou hast 
given me a taste of Thy sweetness. Thou hast given me gra- 
titude and thankfulness and an overflowing heart of praise. I 
would stand still and shout and bless God. It is God in us that 
believes in God. Without the light of God we should be in 
total darkness, and He is the only source of light. The more 
of God we have in us, the more we see beyond us. 

*' Thy inspiration, O God ! is love and wisdom. In Thee 
they are one, as light and warmth are in the fire. 

'* Thou art the true, eternal food of life, and he that has 
tasted Thee can never be at rest until he is wholly filled with 
Thee. Lord, when we are without Thee we are lost, dead, in 



io8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

darkness. It is in and by Thy presence that we Hve and move 
and have our being. 

" Ever more, O Lord, increase Thy Spirit in us until between 
us there is no more we or Thee, but Thou, O Father, art all ! 

" Like the fixed Hght in a crystal which flashes back the light 
of the sun, so does the soul of man reflect God. 

*' A good life consists in passive as well as active virtues. 

'' O Lord, so fill me that nothing shall be left but Thee, and 
I may be no more." 

One would be tempted to beHeve that none but a master in 
the spiritual life could have written the sentences which imme- 
diately follow this outburst of love and praise. Yet remember 
that Isaac Hecker was not yet twenty-four, and that he knew 
nothing of the ways of the Spirit except what the Spirit Him- 
self had directly taught him : 

'' The reason why men are perplexed and in darkness about 
their being and the questions which their being often asks, is not 
that these are insoluble, but that the disposition and spirit in 
which a solution is attempted is so contrary to that in which they 
may be solved, that they appear as hidden mysteries. 

"When we come together to converse, it should be to learn 
from each other what good we can and ought to do, and so 
mingle the brightness of one with the dimness of the other. 
Our meetings should be such that we should go away feeling 
that God had been with us and multipHed our blessings. The 
question should be, ' Brother, can you teach me the way of the 
Lord in a more perfect manner than that in which I tread it, 
so that my soul may be increased and God abide in me more 
and more ? ' Oh ! he is my brother, my master, who leads 4iie 
to do more and more good and to love and live more of God. 
He that does not increase my heart in love or my mind in true 
godly wisdom, is unprofitable and negatively injurious to me. 

"Wilfulness locks up while willingness" (docility) "unlocks 
the portal to the divine mysteries of God. I would not at- 
tempt to solve a mystery by intellect, but by being." 

''October 17. — It is some time since I have written in this 
book. All my spare time has been occupied in writing letters to 
my friends, meditating, feeling, arranging matters with my brothers 
regarding our relations with each other, and attending to the 



At Home Agai7t. 109 



business. I have had httle time to read and to visit my friends. 
Since I have written my feeHngs have become more definite, my 
thoughts clearer and more distinct, and my whole mind more 
systematic. . . 

" The settlement which has been made with my brothers gives 
me the opportunity of doing what my spirit has long demanded 
of me. This afternoon I have been working on their bedroom, 
making it larger and more pleasant for their minds. This is the 
first movement I have made toward ameliorating their condition. 
I hope that God will give me strength to continue." 

"■ October 18. — I feel this afternoon a deep want in my soul 
unsatisfied by my circumstances here, the same as I experienced 
last winter when I was led from this place. It is at the very 
depth of my being. Ah, it is deeply stirred ! Oh, could I utter 
the aching void I feel within ! Could I know what would fill it ! 
Alas ! nothing that can be said, no, nothing, can touch the aching 
spot. In silence I must remain and let it ache. I would cover 
myself with darkness and hide my face from the light. Oh, 
could I but call upon the Lord ! Could I but say, Father ! 
Could I feel any relationship ! " 

'' November 3. — All things considered, could I, under any cir- 
cumstances, have more opportunities for self-culture and for 
doing good than I have in my present position ? 

" For one thing, there is too much demand on me for phy- 
sical action. My heart and head have not their share of time. 
But when I consider, I am at a loss to know how we can possibly 
diminish our business in any way without a still greater demand 
on us for physical labor in consequence of diminishing it. 

" Yesterday afternoon I went alone in my bedroom and I 
was led to pray, and to think what more I can do for the 
friends around me than I now do. This morning I arose and 
prayed, and felt determined not to let any outward event disturb 
my inward life ; that nothing should ruffle my inward peace, 
and that this day should be one of interior life, let come what 
would. 

** Often I think of my past life and my present with such a 
strength of emotion that I would cry aloud, ' O Heaven help 
me from my course ! This is not the life I would lead, but how 
shall I change it ? O Lord ! wilt Thou guide me and lead me, 



no The Life of Father Hecker. 

no matter what pain or distress I may have to pass through, to 
the true path Thou wouldst have me go in ? Oh ! I thank 
Thee for all Thou hast in any way inflicted on me ; it has been 
to me the greatest blessing I could have received. And, O 
Lord ! chasten me more, for I need it. How shall I live so that 
I may be the best I can be under any conditions ? If those 
in which I now am are not the best, where shall I go or how 
shall I change them ? Teach me, O Lord ! and hear my humble 
prayer.'" 

The following account of his curious inner experiences tells 
of the positive interference of God and His angels, supplement- 
ing the calmer moods in which Isaac longed for and struggled 
towards the settled condition only to be attained after his entering 
the Church. 

" November 5. — How is it and why is it that I feel around 
me the constant presence of invisible beings who affect my sensi- 
bility, and with whom I converse, as it were, in thought and 
feeling, but not in expression ? At times they so move me that 
I would escape them, if I could, by running away from where I 
am. I can scarcely keep still ; I feel like beating, raving, and 
grasping what I know not. Ah ! it is an unearthly feeling, and 
painfully afflicts my heart. How to get rid of it I do not know. 
If I remain quietly where I am, by collecting its scattered rays 
it burns more deeply into my soul, bringing forth deep sighs, 
groans, and at times demanding all my energy to repress an un- 
natural howl. 

"• How shall I escape this ? By remaining here and trying 
to bear it, or by travelling? To do the latter has often oc- 
curred to me of late. By such a cause I was driven from 
home last winter. What the result will be this time I cannot 
tell ; but if I did know, I would not wait, as I did then, until it 
came on me with such power as to be torturing in the extreme. 
Ah, what nervous strength and energy I feel at such times ! 
If I speak of it to my brothers, they cannot understand me, never 
having had the same experience. My timidity, which does not 
wish to be thought of as desiring anything extra on account of 
my life, makes me bear it until it is unendurable. Hence I am 
silent so long as it does not speak for itself, which extremity 
might be prevented were circumstances other than they are. 
Since they are not, let it be borne with, say strength and resig- 



At Home Again. iii 



nation united with hope. 'Tis this that is fabled in Prometheus 
and Laocoon — and how well fabled, too." 

It is significant that after every extraordinary disturbance, 
such as the above, he experienced the impulse to study the 
credentials of claimants in the outer religious world, the envoys 
of the Deity to man ; and this especially concerning the Cath- 
olic Church. He goes on at once to say : 

" Of late I have felt more disposed to look into church 
matters than for six months past. Last evening I made a visit 
to the Rev. Mr. Haight " (an Episcopal clergyman) "and con- 
versed with him about that subject for an hour and a half 
We differed very little in our opinions. If the Church of Rome 
has fallen into corruptions from her over-warmth, the Anglican 
has neglected some of her duties through her coldness. And 
if the Anglican receives the first five or six councils as legiti- 
mate and rejects the Council of Trent as not a full one, still, 
as an individual, I think Rome did not establish or enjoin any- 
thing in those decrees " (the Tridentine) '* which was not in 
harmony with the Spirit of Christ, the Scriptures, and tradition. 
But the Anglican thinks she has, and hence, in his judgment, 
they are unwarrantable and unnecessary." 

''November 15. — How does Jesus commune with Humanity 
through the Church ? Does He now commune with the Church ? 
Was the life given by Him to His immediate disciples all that 
has been given and transmitted to us, or does He now commune 
with the visible Church ? And how ? He promised to be with 
His disciples even unto the end of the world, to send the Com- 
forter who should lead them into all truth, and to intercede for 
us with the Father. The Church holds that its sacraments and 
forms are the visible means for communing with the invisible — 
that grace is imparted through them to the worthy receiver. 
Is it true that such grace is imparted ? If it is, it will be 
shown by its fruits. Contrast the Catholic who believes most in 
the sacraments wdth the Quaker who does not believe in them 
at all as religious or moral forces. Certainly, if the sacraments 
have any beneficial effect, it should be shown in the contrast 
between those v/ho totally deny their efficacy and those who 
religiously believe in them. Now, does this show what one 
would naturally expect to flow from faith in the sacraments ? 



1 1 2 The Life of Father Hecker. 

^'November 20. — I feel in better health than I have ever had, 
both mind and body, having at the same time an increased 
sensitiveness, so that the touch of any one I cannot bear. Also, 
I am conscious of a more constant spiritual communion. I feel 
more vividly and distinctly the influence and presence — spiritual 
presence — of others. 

" I lie down in my bed at night with the same feelings with 
which I rise in the morning. I anticipate as much from one as 
from the other. The events, emotions, and thoughts which come 
in my sleep are as much a part of my real life as those of the 
day. Waking and sleeping are two forms of existence. To me 
the latter state is full of interest and expectation. The two 
states mutually act upon each other. 

*'Hope, Faith, Wish, are the presentiments of sight, the 
evidences of becoming sight to the senses. They are the fore- 
runners of vision. It is by them we know. ... 

'' To believe is to see, not with the senses but with the 
higher faculties of the soul, reason, imagination, hope. . . . 

" I believe that every faculty may be elevated to the state of 
prophecy. 

" Reasoning is faith struggHng with doubt." 




CHAPTER XL 

STUDYING AND WAITING. 

THAT '* movable feast," Thanksgiving Day, gave Isaac occasion 
for making this examination of conscience at five o'clock in 
the morning : 

** When I cast my eyes back, it seems to me that I have 
made some progress — that I have grown somewhat better than 
I was. Thoughts, feelings, and passions which were active in my 
bosom, and which, in truth, were not to be well-spoken of, have 
given place, I hope, to a better state of mind. 

*' How am I now actualizing my spiritual life ? It would be 
hard for me to answer at this moment. Am I less wilful ? Do 
I sacrifice more than I did ? Am I more loving ? I am afraid 
that I am doing nothing more than I did ; and therefore I took 
up this book to give an account of myself. 

** Study occupies the best part of my time most generally. I 
recite lessons in Latin and in German every day, and now intend 
to study English grammar again. Then I read considerable, and 
write letters to my friends. All this, added to the hours I have 
to spend in business, leaves me not sufficient time to meditate ; 
and there is no opportunity here for me to go into a retired, 
silent place, where I can be perfectly still, which is what has 
the most internal effect on me, and the best and most lasting. 
Two things I should and must do for my own soul's sake : speak 
less, and think less of my friends. To do this will give me a 
retired place and an opportunity for silence in the midst of all 
that is around me. 

*' I feel that I am not doing anything to ameliorate the social 
condition of those around me who are under my influence and 
partial control. Just now there seems a stand-still in this direction. 
The Spirit promises to teach us in all things : what more would 
it have me do in this way ? What should be my next step ? My 
mind has been partially drawn away from this by the present poor 
state of business, which keeps us cramped in our funds. 

'*I fear that to take less food than I now do would injure my 
health — else I should fast often. 

** To-day let me put in practice the two above-mentioned 
duties : silence, and less thought upon my friends. 



114 The Life of Father Hecker. 

** And now, O God ! if Thou helpest not I shall be worse 
than before. Heavenly Father, as the flower depends on the light 
and warmth of the sun for its grace and beauty, so, and much 
more, do I depend on Thee for life and progress. O Lord ! from 
the depths of my heart I would implore Thee to aid me in all 
good intentions. My heart overflows with its fulness of gratitude 
for what Thou hast done for me, and I know Thou wilt not 
shorten Thy hand. Thy beauty, Thy loveliness, O God ! is 
beyond our finite vision, far above our expression. Lord, all I 
can utter is. Help my weakness." 

^'December 2, 1843. — My heart, these two days back, has been 
filled with love. Oh, had I some one to whom I could unbosom 
myself! There is a something that affects my heart which is invis- 
ible, and to me strange." 

Here he seems to intend the literal, physical heart, making it 
the scene, at the same time, of a spiritual emotion. On the same 
day he writes : 

'' I will not feed my body with impure food — is it not of infi- 
nitely more importance that I should not feed my spirit with deeds 
of impurity ? By this I mean my gaining a living by making 
and selling articles which, in my judgment, are injurious, being 
luxurious and altogether unnecessary. Should I cease from doing 
that which is contrary to my spirit, what else should I do ? O 
Lord, enlighten Thou my path ! " 

With what zeal he still persisted in the practice of bodily 
mortification this entry bears witness : 

^^ December 6. — Day before yesterday I fasted and took a cold 
shower-bath. My diet is apples, potatoes, nuts, and unleavened 
bread. No water — scarcely a mouthful a week." 

Then follow some thoughts on the solidarity of humanity, 
which retards individual progress by weighting each with the bur- 
dens of all others. He finds in this an explanation of the truth 
that our Lord took all the sins of men upon Himself and suffered 
for them on the cross. The bhnd ingratitude with which this 
sacrifice has been repaid cuts him with anguish, from which he 
rises into this cry of love and adoration : 



Studying and Waiting. 1 1 5 

" O Lord ! my heart is choked from the utterance of its depth 
of thankfulness. O dear Christ ! O sweet Christ ! O loving Christ! 
oh, more than brother, friend ! oh, more than any other being can 
be ! O Son of God ! oh. Thou who showest forth the pure love of 
God ! oh. Thou inexpressible Love ! draw me nearer Thee, let me 
feel more of Thy purity, Thy love! Oh, baptize me with Thy 
Spirit and loosen my tongue that I may speak of Thy love to 
men ! Oh, it cannot be spoken of, nor can our hearts feel its great- 
ness. God ! what is Thy mercy that Thou sufferest us to live ? 
Our ingratitude is too great to be uttered. Lord, I am silent, 
for who can speak in Thy presence ? O Father ! O Love ! O 
Loving-kindness ! My heart could fly away !" 

On his birthday, December 18, 1843, having finished his twenty- 
third year, he puts down an account of conscience in the form of 
prayers and aspirations to God, breathing a deep sense of humility, 
expressing regret for his inactivity, his lack of gratitude for favors 
both spiritual and temporal, and adding a fervent appeal for more 
light and greater courage. In almost every entry of any length in 
the diary during this period he complains of his lack of solitude and 
of the m.eans of obtaining it. His mind, after arriving home, was 
tossed Avith many interior distresses which he could not com- 
municate to his brothers, nor even to his mother, with any hope 
of assuagement, but which silence and solitude enabled him to 
soothe by prayer. On the last day of the year he reverts to the 
great changes which 1843 had witnessed in his soul, and which, 
he says, were accompanied by bitter anguish. Twelve months 
before he had been with his '* dear friend, O. A. Brownson, filled 
with an unknown spirit, driven from home by it, and like one 
intoxicated^, not knowing who I was or wherefore I was so 
troubled " — then to Brook Farm, and to Fruitlands, and back 
again in New York for the previous five or six months, the same 
spirit still in sovereign mastery over him, and, " though regulated, 
none the less powerful." He says that he is not so restless nor 
his mind so chaotic, but that he still has a pain at heart which he 
declares to be almost unbearable, joined to some nervous excitability. 

Meantime, besides trying to employ himself actively in the 
business of the Hecker Brothers, he recited lessons daily in both 
German and Latin, and read much, chiefly on topics suggested 
by the difficulties with which his life was beset, such as philosophy, 
religious controversy, and the graver sorts of poetry, of w^hich that 



ii6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

of Goethe made a deep impression on him. The melancholy unrest 
and longing which such poetry embodies sunk into his very heart 
Often it gave perfect expression to his own doubting and distressed 
state of soul. He also found some relaxation in an occasional visit 
to the theatre and heard nearly all the lectures given in the city. 
One of the dreams of his life, the amelioration of the social con- 
dition of the working people, he found himself unable to actualize 
in any appreciable degree. It is evident that his brothers shared 
his philanthropic views ; but when it came to set practically to 
work there was a lack of harmony. John Hecker was for attain- 
ing the object by stricter discipline, treating the men rather as 
servants ; while "■ we," says Isaac, speaking of himself and George, 
''took the side of treating them with kindness, and, as far as 
possible, as brethren." In truth, it was evidence of nobihty of 
character in these three brothers that they could so much as 
dream of actualizing so radical a social reform in but one estab- 
lishment amidst so many in ardent business competition with 
each other. It may be said in passing that the practical charity 
of the Hecker Brothers continued to do credit to the spirit which 
originally prompted their attempts at social reform. During a 
period of general distress some years since they distributed bread 
free, sending their own wagons around the city for the purpose. 
No small part of Isaac's distress arose from what the diary 
calls the ugliness, vulgarity, and discord everywhere to be met 
with in his daily round of duties. He had one refuge from this 
in his domestic life — a pleasant, pure, and peaceful home; and 
another in the inner chamber of his soul, better fitted every day 
to be a sanctuary to which he could fly for solace. But his 
heart fairly bled for the vast mass of men and of women about 
him, only a few of whom had such an outer refuge, and perhaps 
fewer still the inner one. This sympathy he felt his life long. 
He ever blamed the huge accretion of law and customs and 
selfishness which is called society for much of this misery of 
men, this hindrance to a fair distribution of the goods of this 
world, this guilty permission on the part of the fortunate few of 
the want and dirt and ugliness and coarseness which are the lot 
of almost the whole race of man. Yet he was not blind to in- 
dividual guilt. Right here in his diary, after lamenting his en- 
forced inability to succor human misery, he says that some words 
dropped by the workmen in conversation with him cause him 
to record his conviction that suffering and injustice, together with 



Studying and Waitijig. 1 1 7 

the depriv^ation of liberty, are due to one's own fault as well as 
to that of others : 

** Every evil that society inflicts upon me, the germ of it is 
my own fault ; in proportion as I free myself from my vices will 
I free myself from the evils which society inflicts upon me. Be 
true to thyself and thou canst not be false to any one. Be true 
to thyself, and it follows as night follows day that others cannot 
be false to thee." 

Of course this panacea ofiers only an inward healing, for none 
more readily admitted than he who wrote these sentences that in 
externals the true heart is often the first victim of the malice 
of the false heart. 

Ever and again we find in the diary reflections on the general 
aspect of religion. The Protestant churches seemed to him to 
fail to meet the aspirations of the natural man ; that is the burden 
of his complaint against them all. Some, like the Unitarians, did 
but ofi"er man his best self, and hence added nothing to human- 
ity, while humanity at its best ceaselessly condemned itself as in- 
sufficient. This insufficiency of man for himself, Calvinistic and 
Lutheran Protestantism in their turn condemned as a depravity 
worthy of the deepest hell, making man a wretch maimed in his 
very nature so cruelly and fatally as to be damned for what he 
could not help being guilty of Meantime the Catholic Church 
was seen by Isaac Hecker as having elements the most attractive. 
It recognized in man his native dignity ; it saw in him a being 
made God-like by the attribute of reason, and called him to a 
state infinitely more God-like by a supernatural union with Christ. 
It understood his weakness, pitied it, and knew how to cure it. 
True, there are passages here in which his impatience with the 
public attitude of the Church betrays that his view of it was yet 
a distant one ; they show, also, an undue concentration of his gaze 
upon social evils. " The Church is a great almoner," he says, 
'* but what is she doing to ameliorate and improve the circum- 
stances of the poorer and more numerous classes ? She is more 
passive than active." '' Instead of the Church being in the head 
and front of advancement, suffering martyrdom for Christ, she is 
in a conservative relation with society." Yet he adds; ** We 
speak of the Church as she is exhibited by her bishops and clergy, 
and only in this sense." 

Isaac Hecker's renewed experiment of engaging in business 
and following at the same time the lead of the peremptory Spirit 



1 1 8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

within him soon proved a failure. He complains, though not as 
bitterly as the year before when he felt the first agony of this 
suffering, that the greater part of his true life is lost in his present 
position — the thoughts, feelings, studies which are of supreme value 
to him, getting entrance into his mind almost by stealth, while, 
at the same time, he is not of much use in the business and of little 
benefit to others in any way. On- March lo he wrote to Brownson 
that he was going to give up business totally and finally, and 
asked his advice about a course of study *'for the field of the 
Church," not having yet fully settled as to v/hether it should be 
"the Roman or the Anglican." Upon his determination to with- 
draw from the secular affairs of life he experienced " such peace, 
calmness, and deep, settled strength and confidence" as never be- 
fore. " I feel the presence of God, " he writes, " wherever I am. 
I would kneel and praise God in all places. In His presence I 
walk and feel His breath encompass me. My soul is borne up by 
His presence and my heart is filled by His influence. How thank- 
ful ought we to be ! How humble and submissive! Let us lay our 
heads on the pillow of peace and die peacefully in the embrace 
of God." 

Brownson answered his letter with one of encouragement to 
carry out his purpose. Yet, there was a pang ; Isaac laments 
" the domestic comforts, the little offices of tender love " which 
he should lose by going from home. And well he might, for 
tender love may well describe the bond uniting the dear old 
mother and her three noble sons. The present writer had no 
personal acquaintance with John Hecker, but we never heard his 
name mentioned by Father Hecker except with much affection. 
George always seemed to us something like a perfect man. He 
especially it was who all his life gave his entire unselfish love to 
his brother Isaac. The reader has noticed, we hope, that there 
has been no mention so far in the diary of difficulty in obtaining 
money for the expenses of his various journeyings and for nis 
support when absent from home. The two brothers in New 
York appear to have held these pilgrimages in search of the 
truth in such reverence as to make Isaac their partner, only in a 
higher sense than ever before. And George Hecker, especially, 
seemed throughout his life to continue Isaac a member of his 
great and rich firm, lavishing upon his least wish large sums of 
money, and these not only for his strictly personal expenditure, 
but for any cause whatever he might ha\^e at heart. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE MYSTIC AND THE PHILOSOPHER. 

BEFORE summarizing and conveniently arranging Isaac Hecker's 
reasons for becoming a Catholic and narrating the accompany- 
ing incidents, we give the following profession of faith in the author- 
ity of the Spirit speaking within. It was written in the diary in the 
midst of his preparations for his baptism, and is an early witness 
of a permanent characteristic of Father Hecker's life. It is, be- 
sides, a fitting introduction to the description of his state of mind 
when he entered the Church, showing better than anything we 
have found what kind of man became a CathoHc in Isaac 
Hecker. 

"Man is a mystic fact. 

*' What is most interior is ever mystical, and we should ever 
be in the centre of the circle of the mystic life. 

" We must unfold the mystical in all our expressions, actions, 
thoughts, and motions. 

" It is the mystic life only which can fully interest man. This 
is deeper than all conditions, behind all organs, faculties, and 
functions. 

" We must listen to those who speak to us in the interior 
world, and hear the mystic man speak through us. 

" The mystic man is ever youthful, fresh, and new. 

" The mystic sphere is the kingdom of heaven within. 

" I can neither study nor sit down and read for any length 
of time. The inner man will not permit me. Ever he calls me 
from it to ^neditate and enjoy his presence. 

*' He says : I am all. Ask of me and I will give you more 
than has been written — more than you can ever find or dig out 
by study. 

'* Be my spokesman — this is your office. Submit to me — this 
is your glory. I have taken up my abode in you on condition 
that you will be faithful and submissive. 

'* You have no business to ask of me what I am going to set 
you about. I am, and you know it — and this is enough for you 
to know. 

" This is my condition of remaining with you — that you enter- 
tain me, and me alone, and no other on any pretext whatsoever. 



120 The Life of Father Hecker. 

I am all, and this suffices. You have nothing to say, to do, or 
to be troubled about. Do only as I bid you, follow what I 
tell you, and be still. 

*^ If you neglect me in any way, or forget me for any other 
object, now that you have enjoyed my confidence, love, and bless- 
ing, I will not abide with you any longer. 

'' I want all your time and to speak all that is to be said. 
You have no right to speak a word — not a word — of your own. 
You are not your own. You have given yourself up to me, and 
I am all. I will not leave you unless you leave me first, and 
even then I shall ever be the nearest to you, but you will not 
know it. 

** I am your Friend ; the One who loves you. I have dis- 
covered myself to you and will do so yet more. But the condi- 
tion of so doing requires from you even more faith, tenderness, 
and submissiveness. 

^' Nothing is so real, so near, so full of enjoyment as I am to 
you, and you cannot leave me without giving up the greater for 
the less. 

*' I talk to you at all times and am near you at all seasons, 
and my joy is to be in your presence, to love you and to take 
delight in this love I bestow upon you. I direct your pen, speech, 
thought, and affections, though you know it not sensibly. But 
you shall know more clearly who I am, and all respecting me, 
if you but comply with my requirements. You need not fear : 
you cannot make any mistakes if you submit to be guided by 
me." 

Isaac Hecker had now tried every form of philosophy. Who- 
ever sailed with Brownson on that voyage which ended on the 
shores of CathoHc truth, had explored the deep seas and sounded 
the shoal waters of all human reason ; and young Hecker had been 
Brownson's friend and sympathizer since the years of his own 
earliest mental activity. Pantheism, subjectivism, idealism, and all 
the other systems were tried, and when at last he was convinced 
that Life is Real it was only after such an agony as must attend 
the imminent danger of fatal shipwreck. 

He had, meantime, given a fair trial to philanthropy. Theoreti- 
cally and practically, Isaac Hecker loved humanity ; to make men 
happy was his ever-renewed endeavor ; was, in truth, the con- 
dition on which his own happiness depended. For years this view 



The Mystic and the Philosopher. 121 

of his life-task alternated with his search for exact answers to the 
questions his soul asked about man's destiny hereafter ; or, one 
might rather say, social questions and philosophical ones borrowed 
strength from each other to assail him till his heart throbbed and 
his brain whirled with the agony of the conflict. 

In a series of articles in TJie Catholic World published in 
1887, and before referred to. Father flecker called Dr. Brownson's 
road to the Church the philosophical road. Finding that doctrines 
which his philosophical mind perceived to answer the deepest 
questions of the soul were taught only in one society, and there 
taught with authority, he argued validly that that society could 
lay claim to the right to teach. From the doctrine to the teacher, 
from the truth to the external authority that teaches it, is an infer- 
ence of sound reason. This applies to Father Hecker's case also, 
for he was of a bent of mind truly philosophical, and he has 
placed on record the similarity of his philosophical difficulties with 
those of Brownson. But in addition to philosophical questions, 
and far more pressing, were to Isaac Hecker the problems arising 
from the mystical occurrences of which his soul was the theatre. 
Were these real ? — that is, were they more than the vagaries of a 
sensitive temperament, the wanderings of a sentimental imagination, 
or, to use Father Hecker's own words, ** the mere projections into 
activity of feelings entirely subjective ; mystical impulses towards 
no corresponding objective realities, or, at any rate, with objects 
which it is not possible to bring into the field of the really knowable ? 
Some will admit that religious feeling is as much a verity as any 
other part of human consciousness, affirming, however, the subjec- 
tivity of all purely spiritual life ; and no more can be said, they 
insist, for the principles, metaphysical and logical, with which they 
are associated in the spiritual life of man. Now, such a theory 
never leaves the soul that is governed by reason at rest. The pro 
blem ever and again demands solution : are these yearnings, aspi- 
rations, unappeased desires, or religious feelings — the ruling traits 
of the noblest men and women — ^are they genuine, real, correspond- 
ing to and arising from the reality of certain objects external to the 
soul ? I think that in the solution of this problem Dr. Brownson 
fought and won his greatest victory; at any rate, it was to me the 
most interesting period of his life. No wonder, since I had the 
same battle to fight myself, and it was just at this epoch that I came 
into closest contact with him. We fought this battle shoulder-to- 
shoulder." — Catholic World, October, 1887, pp. 5-6. 



122 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Brownson's heavy heart was due to philosophical difficulties, 
and Isaac Hecker's to the same ; but in addition the latter had 
a mystical experience to which Brownson was at that time, cer- 
tainly, a stranger, and, as far as we know, he remained so ; and 
these mystical difficulties demanded settlement far more impera- 
tively than did the philosophical ones. Isaac Hecker's inner life 
must have an external adjunct of divine authority. Such aspira- 
tions of the soul for present union with God in love as he had, 
are more peremptory in demanding satisfaction than those of the 
logical faculty in demanding the ascertainment of the certain 
truth. Philosophy outside the Church is to the searcher after 
truth what St. Paul said the Law was to the Jews, a school- 
master ; but, to a soul in the condition of Isaac Hecker, the Holy 
Spirit is a spouse demanding union. Both Brownson and him- 
self were men true to their convictions, courageous and unselfish. 
They were both firmly determined to have the truth and to have 
the whole of it, whether spoken ex cathedra in the divine court 
of the innermost soul, or ex cathedra by the supreme authority 
of God in the organism of the Christian Church. " Brownson 
was firmly persuaded," says Father Hecker, " and so am I, that 
the great fault of men generally is that they deem the life of 
their souls, thoughts, judgments, and convictions, yearnings, aspira- 
tions, and longings to be too subject to illusion to be worthy 
their attentive study and manly fidelity ; that even multitudes of 
Cathohcs greatly undervalue the divine reahty of their inner life, 
whether in the natural or supernatural order." 

The philosophical difficulty was far less serious than the spir- 
itual one. To the philosopher the fundamental truths of human 
reason are established as objective realities by processes common 
to every sane mind, and are backed by the common consent of 
men ; and this is true also of the prime verities of ethics. But 
when a man finds himself subject to secret influences of the ut- 
most power over him, able to cast him off or to hold him, to 
sicken his body and distress his soul, extending his views of the 
truth by flashes of light into vistas that seem infinite, making his 
love of right an ecstasy, his sympathy for human misery a pas- 
sion, controlling his diet and his clothing, ordering him here and 
there at will and knowing how to be obeyed — when, in a word, 
a man finds himself treated by God in a manner totally different 
from any one else he knows or ever heard of, it is plain that 
he must agonize for the possession of a divine sanction to which 



The Mystic aiid the Philosopher. 123 



he can appeal in common with all men, and which must there- 
fore exist in the external order. He longs, above all things, to 
test his secret in the light of day. 

The problem that Isaac Hecker had to solve, as he described 
it himself, was whether his life was real — using the word " life " 
to denote its truest meaning, the interior life. We have been 
careful to make the reader aware of how deep and continuous 
were the inner touches of the Holy Spirit which led him on. Be- 
fore applying for admission to the Church, there was no truth 
that he could believe more firmly than that he was the temple 
of the Holy Ghost. Of that he had the certitude which is called 
personal and the teaching of God which is most direct. Yet 
something was lacking, and therein lay his agony, for he knew 
that his fellow-men were entitled to all that he had of truth and 
virtue. The more distinct the Voice which spoke within, the more 
perplexing it became to hear no echo from without. He felt 
sure that what was true and holy for him must be so for all, 
and yet he could not so much as make himself understood if he 
told his secret to others. To the born Catholic there is no such 
difficulty. He is so fully accustomed to the verification of the 
inner action of God, enlightening his mind and stinging his con- 
science, by God's external action in the Church, that he often 
confounds the two. He knows the Voice better by its echo than 
by its own tones. There are many good CathoHcs, but few en- 
Hghtened mystics. This is not for lack of guidance, so far as 
doctrine is concerned, for accredited authors on such subjects are 
numerous and their teaching is uniform and expHcit, besides being 
of the most intense interest to those for whose instruction it is 
adapted. These masters of spiritual doctrine not only dwell 
upon the interior Hfe itself, but also on the external order of 
God in His Church which brings His interior teaching into proper 
relation with the exterior. The interior life thus made integral 
is alone worthy of the term real; is alone worthy of the de- 
scription of St. Paul when he calls it *' the witness of the Spirit." 
Now, as a witness who cannot be brought into open court to give his 
testimony might as well be dumb, and is as good as no witness, 
so the inner life, lacking, the true external order of God, is 
cramped and helpless ; and cramped and helpless Isaac Hecker 
was. Whatever he did, therefore, toward investigating religious 
evidences was done primarily as a search for the external cri- 
terion which should guarantee the validity of the inspirations of 



1 24 The Life of Father Hecker. 

God within him, and at the same time provide a medium of 
union with his fellow- men. 

Those whose advertence is not particularly aroused to the 
facts of their interior life, have for their main task either the 
study of the Church as a visible society, claiming continuity with 
one estabhshed by Christ; or, preceding that, the question 
whether such a society was ever founded by God. Now, 
although such questions must be settled by all, they are not 
the main task of men like Isaac Hecker. In their case the 
problem transcending all others is where to find that divine 
external order demanded for the completion of their inner 
experience. Such men must say : If there is no external 
order of God in this world, then my whole interior life is fatal- 
ly awry. 

The captain whose voyage is on the track of the trade 
winds nevertheless needs more than dead reckoning for his 
course; he needs to take the sun at noon, to study the heavens 
at night, and to^ con his chart. To follow one's interior drift 
only is to sail the ocean without chart or compass. The sail 
that is wafted by the impulses of the divine Spirit in the 
interior life must have, besides, the guarantee of divine veracity 
in the external order to justify him. This he needs, in order 
to safeguard him in the interior life itself, and to provide a 
common court of appeal between himself and his fellows, or 
otherwise he is in danger of fanaticism, and is certain of the 
mistrust of his fellow- men. No man, unsupported by external 
miracles, can claim to teach what is vouched for only by 
his own testimony ; and this especially applies to purely subjective 
experiences. Isaac Hecker was a born teacher of men, and to be 
shut off from them by an isolated experience was to be robbed of 
his vocation. A soul like his, led to the truth along the path of 
social reform, will hail with delight a religion which organizes all 
humanity on a basis of equality, and at the same time verifies 
and explains the facts of each one's particular experience. Such 
a religion is to be longed for, not only because of its universal 
brotherhood, but also because it can decide between the inspira- 
tions of the Holy Spirit and the criminal conceits of passion or 
the dreams of an imaginative temperament. 

Many years afterwards Father Hecker thus stated the har- 
mony between the inner and outer action of God in the soul's 
life: 



The Mystic a7id the Philosopher. 125 

" In case of obscurity or doubt concerning what is the 
divinely revealed truth, or whether what prompts the soul is or 
is not an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recourse must be had 
to the divine teacher or criterion — the authority of the Church. 
For it must be borne in mind that to the Church, as represented 
in the first instance by St. Peter and subsequently by his 
successors, was made the promise of her divine Founder that * the 
gates of hell should never prevail against her.' No such pro- 
mise was ever made by Christ to each individual believer. ' The 
Church of the living God is the pillar and ground of truth.' 
The test, therefore, of a truly enlightened and sincere Christian 
will be, in case of uncertainty, the promptitude of his obedience 
to the voice of the Church. 

*' From the above plain truths the following practical rule of 
conduct may be drawn : The Holy Spirit is the immediate guide 
of the soul in the way of salvation and sanctification ; and the 
criterion or test, that the soul is guided by the Holy Spirit, is 
its ready obedience to the authority of the Church. This rule 
removes all danger whatever, and with it the soul can walk, run, 
or fly, if it chooses, in the greatest safety and with perfect liberty, 
in the ways of sanctity." — The Church and the Age, p. 35. 

In transcribing the above we are reminded that St. Ignatius, 
who was the divine instrument in establishing and perfecting 
God's authority in the external order, yet left on record that so 
clearly had the Holy Spirit shown him by secret teaching the 
truths of religion, that, if all the Scriptures had been destroyed, 
his private revelations at Manresa would have sufficed him in 
their stead. 

All that we have just been saying helps to answer the ques- 
tion why Orestes Brownson and Isaac Hecker did not set up 
systems of their own, and become Carlyles and Emersons or, espe- 
cially in Father Hecker's case, Emanuel Swedenborgs or Edward 
Irvings. We find the following among the memoranda of conver- 
sations : 

''June 30, 1886. — Why didn't I switch off from Christianity 
as Carlyle did ? Because I hope that I was truer to natural rea- 
son ; but chiefly because God had given me such an amount of 
infused lights and graces that I was forced to seek a guide or go 
off into extravagant fanaticism. They were ready to encourage 



126 The Life of Father Hecker. 

me in the latter. George Ripley said to me, * Hecker, what have 
you got to tell ? Tell us what it is and we will accept it.' " 

The impression a perfectly " independent thinker " made on 
him, as typified in Emerson, is told in an entry in his diary, 
dated April 24, 1 844 : 

" I have had a few words with Emerson. He stands on the 
extreme ground where he did several years ago. He and his fol- 
lowers seem to me to live almost a purely intellectual existence. 
His wife I have understood to be a very religious woman. They 
are heathens in thought, and profess to be so. They have no con- 
ception of the Church : out of Protestantism they are almost 
perfectly ignorant. They are the narrowest of men, yet they think 
they are extremely * many-sided ' ; and, forsooth, do not com- 
prehend Christendom, and reject it. The Catholic accepts all the 
good they offer him and finds it comparatively little compared to 
that which he has." 

That he recognized that the test of the character of his inner 
experiences, for good or ill, was to be finally found in what they 
led him to, is shown by the following passage, already quoted, 
from the diary : " What I do I must do, for it is not I that 
do it; it is the Spirit. What that Spirit may be is a ques- 
tion I cannot answer. What it leads me to do will be the only 
evidence of its character. I feel as impersonal as a stranger 
to it" 

The aid which fidelity to the light of reason and the cherish- 
ing and obeying the inspirations of the Holy Spirit lends to the 
discovery of the fulness of truth is shown by the following 
extract from an article by Father Hecker in The Catholic World 
of October, 1887 : 

" The man who establishes the historical identity of the Church 
of to-day with the Apostolic college says the doctrines now 
taught must be true ; the man who perceives the identity of the 
Church's doctrines with his own highest aspirations also proves 
them true. The man who has become responsive to the primitive 
action of his reason says that the Church, which is its only au- 
thoritative exponent, must be a divinely appointed teacher. The 
infallible authority of the Church in her past, present, and future 



The Mystic and the Philosopher. 127 

teaching is established by the necessity of the truths which she 
teaches for the welfare of the human race, by thus completing 
the outlines of natural truth drawn by the divine hand in human 
consciousness." 

By this we see that, if the divine inner life had need of the 
divine outer life for its integrity, it is equally certain that in his 
case, and also in that of Dr. Brownson, the intimate action of 
God within was a pointer to the true Church of the Divine Word 
incarnate in the actual world of humanity : for Dr. Brownson 
chiefly in the intellectual order, for Isaac Hecker in both the 
intellectual and mystical. We have no fear of wearying the read- 
er with the length of an extract of such value as the following : 

"The one who reaches Catholicity by the philosophical road, 
as Brownson did, by no means pretends that the problem of 
human destiny can be solved by mere force of reason : Catholic- 
ity is not rationalism. Nor does he pretend that the product 
of reason's action, the knowledge of human immortality and lib- 
erty and of the being of God, place man apart from or above the 
universal action of God upon all souls by means of a visible so- 
ciety and external ordinances : Catholicity is well named ; it is 
universal. But he knows that when a man is persuaded of a 
truth philosophically he is not called upon by his inteUigence or 
his conscience to base it upon historical evidence ; it is enough 
that he has one source of certitude in its favor. It may be a 
truth first known by revelation, but if the human intelligence is 
capable of receiving it in revelation it must have some element 
of kinship to the truths of pure reason. As in the order of na- 
ture men are like unto God, so is there a likeness between the 
truth of God naturally known and that known only by revela- 
tion. 

" As there is an appetite in the human heart which not all 
the treasures, honors, joys of nature can satisfy, so there is a void 
in the mind which all the truth within reach of the unaided nat- 
ural faculties leaves unfilled. When a man without guile is 
brought face to face with truth he spontaneously desires union 
with it. Appetite proves the existence of food, and the food af- 
firms itself by satisfying the appetite. 

"Where there is question of a principle there is a class of 
minds which must study the part a principle has played in his- 



128 The Life of Father Hecker. 

tory, and is mainly influenced for or against it from its effect on 
former generations of men. This class follows the historical road. 
Another class is so profoundly moved by the truths of revelation 
as soon as known, assimilates them so readily and perfectly, be- 
comes so absorbed and lost in them, that the history of revela- 
tion is not of primary importance ; it is only necessary in order 
to establish necessary facts, such as the divine institution of an 
external society, and of other external aids. But with this philo- 
sophical class of minds the truth stands sponsor for itself and is 
its own best witness. The impression produced by revelation 
here and now upon the soul without guile is one of the best 
probable proofs to that soul of the historical claims of the society 
to which God entrusted it. ' The Church Accredits Itself was the 
title of one of the most powerful articles Dr. Brownson ever 
wrote for this magazine. 

** Both the historical and the philosophical processes are 
necessary, but each is more so to one class of minds than to an- 
other. To the philosophical mind, once scepticism is gone and 
hfe is real, the supreme fact of life is the need of more truth 
than unaided reason can know. The more this need is felt, and 
the more clearly the deficiencies of natural reason are known, the 
better capable one is to appreciate the truths of revelation 
which can alone supply these deficiencies. In such a state of 
mind you are in a condition to establish revealed truth in a 
certain sense a priori, and the method a posteriori is then out- 
ranked. The philosopher outranks the historian. In minds of a 
speculative turn the historian is never considered of primary 
importance. The principles which its facts illustrate are furnished 
him by human reason in philosophy, and by the divine reason 
in revelation. The historical mind has never been considered in 
the world of thought as sovereign. The philosopher is broad 
enough to study all ways leading to the full truth and joy of 
life, whether logical or traditional; but he knows that the study 
of principles is higher than that of facts. ... No man 
can inteUigently become a Cathohc without examining and decid- 
ing the historical question. But back of this is the consideration 
that the truths the Church teaches are necessarily in harmony 
with my reason — nay, that they alone solve the problems of 
reason satisfactorily and answer fully to the wants of the heart. 
To some minds the truths standing alone compel assent ; that is 
to say, the truths standing alone, and considered in themselves, 



The Mystic and the Philosopher. 



29 



demand the submission of my reason. Among these truths, 
thus imperative, not the least is the need of the very Chuich 
herself, viewed in her action on men and nations — viewed quite 
apart from the historical and Scriptural proof of her establishment 
by Christ. Once the mind is lifted above subjectivism and is 
face-to-face with the truth, union with the Church is only a 
question of time and of fidelity to conscience." — Catholic 
World, November, 1887, ''Dr. Brownsoii and Catholicity''' 




CHAPTER XIII. 

HIS SEARCH AMONG THE SECTS.' 

HAD Protestantism possessed anything capable of attracting- 
Isaac Hecker he would certainly have found it, for he made 
due and diligent search. He was, in a manner, bound to do so, 
for the atmosphere in which he had been born and nurtured had 
not yet cleared so fully that he could say to himself with posi- 
tive assurance that there was no safe midway between no-belief 
and CathoHcity. 

All the natural influences of his surroundings were such as to 
draw him to one or other of the Protestant denominations. The 
power of example and precept in his mother tended that way. 
The power of public opinion, in so far as it had any religious 
bearing, was Protestant. The most intelligent and high-minded 
people he had enjoyed intimate acquaintance with were Protes- 
tant by birth and training. True, most of these had fallen away 
from both the fellowship and the doctrines of orthodoxy ; but 
while they had not the heart to point him to what had been 
their Egypt, still they had no Promised Land to lead him into, 
and were confessedly in the Desert. Yet their influence was in- 
directly favorable to Protestantism as opposed to Catholicity, al- 
though no one but the ministers whom he consulted thought of 
urging him to identify himself with any variety of it imtil he 
showed signs of becoming a Catholic. 

To this rule Brownson may appear as a partial exception, but 
until the summer of 1844 he was so in appearance only. It is 
true that Isaac Hecker had learned from him the claims of most of 
the great forms of Protestantism, and got his personal testimony as 
to the emptiness of them all. Brownson was a competent witness, 
for he had been an accepted disciple of every school, from sterile 
Presbyterianism to rank Transcendentalism. Although of a certain 
testiness of temper, he bore malice to no man and to no body of 
men. His testimony was in the presence of patent facts, and his 
condemnation of all forms of orthodox Protestantism in the end 
was unreserved. But, up to the date given above he still made a 
possible exception in favor of Anglicanism. In the middle of April, 
1843, he wrote Isaac a letter, motioning him toward this sect, at the 
same time affirming that he could not quite accept it for himself. 
Such counsel was no better than motioning him away from it. 



His Search ainong the Sects. 131 

and was but a symbol of Brovvnson's own devious progress, sway- 
ing now to one side and again to the other, but always going 
forward to Rome. But young Hecker would learn for himself 
Of an abnormally inquiring mind by nature, he never accepted a 
witness other than himself about any matter if he could help it. 

In the early part of 1844 the question of religious affiliation 
began to press for settlement with increasing urgency, casting 
him at times into an agony of mind. It was not merely that 
he was impelled by conscience towards the fulness of truth, but 
that truth in its simplest elements seemed sometimes to be lack- 
ing to him. He was heard to say in after years that, had he not 
found Catholicity true, he would have been thrown back into a 
scepticism so painful as to suggest suicide as a relief Yet those 
who have trodden any of the paths which lead from inherited 
heresy to true doctrine, will appreciate the force of the influences, 
both personal and social, which induced him to reconsider, and 
make for himself the grand rounds of Protestant orthodoxy before 
turning his back upon it for ever. 

We find him, therefore, going diligently to all who claimed to 
be watchmen on the walls of Sion, to seek from each one per- 
sonally that countersign which would tally with the divine word 
nature and grace were uttering in his own soul. He interviewed 
ministers repeatedly. '* Not having had," he wrote in this mag- 
azine for November, 1887, ''personal and experimental knowl- 
edge of the Protestant denominations, I investigated them all, 
going from one of them to another — Episcopal, Congregational, 
Baptist, Methodist, and all — conferring with their ministers and 
reading their books. It was a dreary business, but I did it. I 
knew Transcendentalism well and had been a radical socialist. 
All was found to be as stated above. Brownson's ripe experience 
and my own thoroughly earnest investigation tallied perfectly. 
Indeed, the more you examine the Protestant sects in the light 
of first principles the more they are found to weaken human 
certitude, interfere with reason's native knowledge oi God and 
His attributes, and perplex the free working of the laws of 
human thought. Protestantism is no religion for a philosopher, 
unless he is a pessimist — if you can call such a being a philos- 
opher — and adopts Calvinism." 

Why Calvinism, with its dread consistency of aversion for 
human nature, did not attract him in these early inquiries was 
expressed by Father Hecker in after years by the saying, 



132 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" Heresy always involves a mutilation of man's natural reason." 
The typical Calvinist foams against man's natural capacity for the 
true and the good, and one of its representatives, a Presbyterian 
minister, had the consistency to say to our young disciple of 
nature, '' Unless you believe that you are totally depraved you 
will certainly suffer eternal damnation." These words were spoken 
to one who felt some sort of apostleship growing into act with- 
in his bosom : to preach the Gospel to those who are totally 
depraved he perceived to be both vain and suicidal. Further- 
more, the consciousness of his own upright character, his experi- 
ence and observation of human virtue in others, made abstract 
arguments needless to prove that Calvinism is an outrage on 
human kind and a blasphemy against the Creator. 

Anglicanism, too — uncleansed, as it notoriously is, of a Calvin- 
istic taint, broken up by absolute license of dissent, maintaining 
a mere outward conformity to an extremely lax discipline — • 
affronted Isaac Hecker's ideal of the communion of man and 
God ; man seeking and God giving the one only revelation of 
divine truth, unifying and organizing the Christian community : 
and this in spite of an attraction for the beauty of the Episco- 
pal service which he often confesses in his diary. 

In the same scrupulous spirit he tried the Baptists, though he 
must have known that they were, almost without exception, 
Calvinists. He had a conference with one of their ministers 
which, from the account he 'gives of it, must have degenerated 
into something like a wrangle. " If," said young Hecker, " you 
admit that baptism is not a saving ordinance, why, then, do you 
separate yourselves from the rest of Christendom on a mere 
question of ceremonial observance ? " There could be no satis- 
factory answer to this question. 

As to the Methodists, they made fifty years ago much less 
pretension to an intellectual footing in the religious world than at 
the present day. One thing, Father Hecker tells us, drew his sym- 
pathetic regards their way — their doctrine of perfection. He went to 
one of their ministers, a Dr. Crawford. ** I have read in the Bible," 
said he, *' ' If thou wouldst be perfect, go and sell all thou hast' ; 
now, that is the kind of Christian I want to be." The answer was: 
" Well, young man, you must not carry things too far ; you are too 
enthusiastic. Christ does not require that of us in the nineteenth 
century." After conversing with him for some time, the minister 
told him to give up such ideas and study for the ministry. 



His Search among the Sects. 133 



A singular episode in his search was his meeting with two en- 
thusiastic Mormon apostles, and a long and careful examination, 
under their guidance, of the then newly-delivered revelations and 
prophecies of Joseph Smith. He describes his Mormon acquain- 
tances as men of some intelligence, but given over, totally and 
blindly, to Smith's imposture. 

But what cut under the claims of every form of Protestantism 
was the error, common to them all, concerning the rule of faith : 
the private and independent judgm.ent of the teaching of Scripture 
made by each man for himself. As the real owner of a homestead 
has most reason to dread a dealer in false titles, so the truly free 
man has most reason to dread false liberty. Isaac Hecker was the 
type of rational individual liberty, hence the very man to abhor 
most the caricature of that prerogative in the typical Protestant. 

Five years before his death, in an article in The Catholic 
World entitled " Luther and the Diet of Worms," Father 
Hecker put the case thus : '* It is a misapprehension common 
among Protestants to suppose that Catholics, in refusing the ap- 
peal of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, condemn the use 
of reason or individual judgment, or whatever one pleases to call 
the personal act which involves the exercise of man's intellect and 
free will. The truth is, personal judgment flows from what con- 
stitutes man a rational being, and there is no power under 
heaven that can alienate personal judgment from man, nor can 
man, if he would, disappropriate it. The cause of all the trouble 
at the Diet of Worms w^as not personal judgment, for neither 
party put that in question. The point in dispute was the right 
application of personal judgment. Catholics maintained, and al- 
ways have and always will maintain, that a divine revelation 
necessitates a divine interpreter. Catholics resisted, and always 
will resist, on the ground of its incompetency, a human authority 
applied to the interpretation of the contents of a divinely-revealed 
rehgion. They consider such an authority, whether of the indi- 
vidual or the state, in religious matters an intrusion. Catholics 
insist, without swerving, upon believing in religion none but God. 
To investigate and make one's self certain that God 
has made a revelation is of obligation, and consistent with 
Christianity. But as a divine revelation springs from a source 
above the sphere of reason, it necessitates a divinely authorized 
and divinely assisted interpreter and teacher. This is one of the 
essential functions of the Church." 



134 ^-^^^ ^if^ of Father Hecker. 

That the use of the Scriptures is not, and cannot be made 
the ordinary means for making all men Christians, was plain to 
Isaac Hecker for other reasons than the essential one thus clearly- 
stated. For, if such were the case, God would bestow on all men 
the gift to read at sight, or cause all to learn how to read, or 
would have recorded in the Book itself the words, '' Unless a 
man reads the Bible, and believes what he reads, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God," or their plain equivalent ; whereas the 
Bible, as we have it now, did not exist in the apostolic days, the 
most glorious era of the Christian Church. Such is Father Heck- 
er's argument in a powerful article in The Catholic World for 
October, 1883. He continues: 

" But suppose that everybody knew how to read, or all men 
were gifted to read at first sight ; suppose that everybody had a 
copy of the Bible within his reach, a genuine Bible, and knew 
with certitude what it means ; suppose that Christ himself had 
laid it down as a rule that the Bible, without note or comment, 
and as interpreted by each one for himself, is the ordinary way 
of receiving the grace of salvation — which is the vital principle 
of Protestantism ; suppose all these evident assumptions as true. 
Would the Bible even in that case suffice to make any one man, 
woman, or child a Christian ? Evidently not. And why ? For 
that is a personal work, and the personal work of Christ; for 
Christ alone can make men Christians. And no account of Christ 
is Christ. . . . The contents of a book, whatever these may 
be, are powerless to place its readers in direct contact and vital 
relations with its author. No man is so visionary as to imagine 
that the mental operation of reading the Iliad, or the Phcsdo, or 
the Divine Comedy, suffices to put him in communication with the 
personaHty of Homer, or Plato, or Dante. All effort is in vain 
to slake the thirst of a soul famishing for the Fountain of living 
waters from a brook, or to stop the cravings of a soul for the 
living Saviour with a printed book. . . . His words are 
* Come unto Me all that are weary and heavy laden, and I will 
refresh )'ou.' It was the attempt to make men Christians by 
reading the Bible that broke Christendom into fragments, multi- 
plied jarring Christian sects, produced swarms of* doubters, filled 
the world with sceptics and scoffers at all religion, frustrated com- 
bined Christian action, and put back the Christian conquest of 
the world for centuries. Three centuries of experience have made 



His Scare Jl anwn^ the Sects. 135 



it evident enough that, if Christianity is to be maintained as a 
principle of Hfe among men, it must be on another footing than 
the suicidal hypothesis invented in the sixteenth century after 
the birth of its divine Founder." 

His farewell interviews with exponents of the Protestant claims 
were mainly, if not wholly, with representatives of Anglicanism. 
This did not arise from any grounded hope of getting all he 
wanted there, but from an insensible drift of his mind upon those 
currents of thought set in motion by the great power of New- 
man. The air was full of promise of non- Roman Catholicity, and 
the voices which called the English-speaking world to listen were 
the most eloquent since Shakespeare. It needed but - a dim 
hope pointing along any road to induce the delicate conscience 
of Isaac Hecker to try if it might not be a thoroughfare. But 
neither in his copious entries in the diary at this period, nor in 
his articles in this magazine for the year 1887 on Dr. Brown- 
son's difficulties — and these v/ere much like his own — do we find 
any trace of his discovering in Anglicanism a germ of CathoHc- 
ity unfolding from the chrysalis of genuine Protestantism and 
casting it off. This was readily perceived in Isaac Hecker's bear- 
ing and conversation by acute Episcopalians themselves, as in 
the case of Dr. Seabury, w^ho, as Father Hecker relates in the 
articles above referred to, prophesied Brownson's conversion to 
Catholicity, and did so for reasons which Seabury must have 
known would apply to young Hecker also. 

Many at this time were being drawn by poetical sentiment to 
the beautiful and religious forms of Episcopalian worship; drawn 
and held rather by imagination and feeling than by any adhesion 
of their minds to distinctive Anglican doctrines. Father Hecker 
was, indeed, more poetical in temperament than at first acquaint- 
ance he seemed to be, but his mind was so constituted that he 
must have the main reasons of things, whether religious or not, 
firmly settled before he could enjoy their use. Nor could he be 
content with fragments of revealed truth, such as are found in all 
denominations of non-Catholics. *' There is a large floating body 
of Catholic truth in the world," says Newman ; "it comes down 
by tradition from age to age. . . . Men [outside the church] 
take up and profess these scattered truths, merely because they 
fall in with them." Not so Father Hecker: no flotsam and jet- 
sam of doctrine for him, unless some fragment would reveal to 



136 The Life of Father Hecker. 

him the name of the ship from which it had been torn, and the 
port from which she had sailed, and so lead him to the discovery 
of the ship herself, crew, cargo, port, and owner. 

Yet he lingered long over the claim of Anglicanism to be the 
Catholic religion. Of Mr. Haight and of his interviews with him 
we have already spoken. Through him he came across a pub- 
lished letter of a Mr. Norris, Episcopal minister in Carhsle, Pa., 
which so pleased him for its Catholic tendency that he wrote to 
him, asking to be allowed to go to Carlisle and live there as the 
writer's pupil. The answer, though a refusal of this request, 
was kind, and contained a cordial invitation to visit Mr. Norris 
after Easter. On his way to Concord, in the following spring, 
Isaac made a long detour to the little town in southern Pennsyl- 
vania, interviewed Mr. Norris, and came away no wiser than before. 

The following words of the diary, under date of March 30, 
1844, refer to an Episcopal dignitary of higher grade : 

** Mr. Haight gave me a note of introduction to Dr. Seabury. 
I called to see him two evenings ago and had a very pleasant 
conversation with him. . His sociableness and perfect openness of 
expression I was quite delighted with. He frankly acknowledged 
that he thought that error had been committed on both sides in 
the controversy of the Reformation between the Pope and the 
Anglican Church. He recommended me to examine those points 
which kept me from joining the Anglican or Roman Church be- 
fore I should do anything further, as there was the charge of 
schism against the Anghcan Church and neglect of discipline 
among the members of her communion. I told him that though 
the Church of Rome may commit errors in practice, she had not 
committed any in principle, and that it was easier to prune a 
luxuriant tree than to revivify a tree almost exhausted of life. I 
left him with an earnest invitation to call again." 

This half-confession of schism and frank avowal of lack of 
discipline on the part of a perfectly representative official of 
the Anglican Church was something singularly Providential, for 
it came within a fortnight after Isaac Hecker's first interview 
with Bishop Hughes, described in the diary under date of 
March 22. That powerful man and great prelate v/as a type 
of the best form of Catholicism at that day. He was of the 
Church militant in more senses than one ; and the military qual- 
ities which have inspired the public action of Catholic champions 



His Search among the Sects. 137 

for the past three centuries were strongly developed in him 
That it was for the good of religion that it should have such 
characters as John Hughes to care for its public welfare there is 
no room to doubt. Since then the temper of Protestant Ameri- 
cans has undergone a change which is almost radical. It has 
grown infinitely more just and kindly towards Cathohcs. The 
decay of the Protestant bond of cohesion from lapse of time and 
from the unsettlement of belief in its chief doctrines ; the fight- 
ing of two wars, one of them the great Rebellion, which fused 
the populations of States and acquainted men better with their 
neighbors ; the coming in of millions of Catholic foreigners whose 
every breath was an aspiration for liberty ; the rise, culmination, 
and collapse of the anti-Catholic movement termed Know-nothing- 
ism ; the polemical warfare of Bishop Hughes himself, and of 
his contemporaries — these and other causes have made it possi- 
ble, nay necessary, to treat non- Catholics in a different spirit 
from what wisdom dictated fifty years ago. 

If Dr. Seabury owned to schism and lack of discipline in 
Anghcanism, Bishop John Hughes brought out to Isaac Hecker 
the very contrary as the attractive qualities of Catholicity. He 
was questioned by the young inquirer about the latter's chances 
for studying for the priesthood should he decide on entering the 
Church, and he answered according to rigid notions of the place 
of authority in religion. 

'* He said," are the words of the diary, ending a summary 
of the interview, ** that their Church was one of discipline. I 
thanked him for the information that he gave, and told him that 
it was for just such instruction that I sought him. He seemed 
to think that I had some loose notions of the Church. So far, 
this settles my present intention of uniting myself with the Ro- 
man Catholic Church. Though I feel not in the least disinclined 
to be governed by the most rigid discipline^ of any church, yet 
I am not prepared to enter the Roman Catholic Church at pres- 
ent. It is not national with us, hence it does not meet our 
wants, nor does it fully understand and sympathize with the ex- 
perience and dispositions of our people. It is principally made 
up of adopted and foreign individuals." 

To us this is exceedingly instructive, for it tells us how not 
to meet the earnest seeker after Catholic truth. Even a good- 
natured dog does not show his teeth when caressed, nor is an 
artillery salute the only show of amity between even warlike 



138 The Life of Father Hecker. 

powers. Yet the repellant attitude of the great controversiahst 
was that of very many representative Catholics of his time, es- 
pecially those holding his high office. For although he really did 
know the American people, and although their country was fully his 
own, and was by him deeply and intelligently loved, yet he did 
not understand or sympathize with the religious movements of 
which his strange young visitor was the truest type. He after- 
wards knew him better and loved him. 

The toss thus given Isaac Hecker by Bishop Hughes's cata- 
pult of *' discipline " had the good effect of throwing him again 
upon a full and perfect and final investigation of Protestantism. 
With what immediate result is shown by the Seabury interview 
already related, and with what honesty of purpose is shown by 
the following words written the same day : 

" If a low passion usurps the place of pure love, if a blind 
prejudice usurps the place of Catholic truth, he who informs me 
of it, though he had been my enemy (if enemies it is possible for 
me to have)^ I will receive him as an angel from heaven, as an 
instrument of God. My honor, my consistency, my character 
consists in faithfulness to God's love, God's truth, and nothing 
else. Let me be but true to Him — how then can I be false to 
either man or the world ? It is Him who knows our secret 
thoughts that we should fear (if fear we must) and obey." 

Thus it was Anglicanism that engaged Isaac Hecker's last 
efforts to adjust a Protestant outside to his inward experience 
with the Holy Spirit; and this for a reason quite evident. 
That body pretended, then as now, to be the Catholic Christian 
Church, assisting men to union with God by a divinely-founded 
external organism, but not demanding the sacrifice of human 
liberty. To an inexperienced observer such as he, it seemed 
possible that Anglicanism might be the union of historical 
Christianity with manly freedom. Closer observation proved to 
him not only the compatibihty of Catholicity and liberty, but 
that Anglicanism, though assuming some of the forms of Catho- 
lic unity, is kept alive by the principle of individual separatism 
common to all Protestant sects. For a time, or in a place, it may 
have much or little of Catholicity ; but in no place can it live for 
a day without the Protestant principle of a right of final appeal 
to the individual judgment to decide upon the verity of doctrine. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HIS LIFE AT CONXORD. 

" T HAVE been groping- in darkness, seeking where Thou wast 
A not, and I found Thee not. But, O Lord my God, Thou 
hast found me — leave me not." 

These words are part of a long prayer written by Isaac 
Hecker in his diary April 23, 1844, after his arrival at Concord, 
Mass. He appears to have gone directly there from Carlisle, 
Pa., where he had spent some days with the Rev. William Her- 
bert Norris, whose published letter to "A Sincere Enquirer" 
had excited in the young man a hope that he might find in him 
a teacher whose deep inward experiences would be complemented 
by the adequate external guaranty that he was seeking. We 
have already noted that he was disappointed. He states the rea- 
son very suggestively in a letter written at the time : 

*' Alas, that men should speak of those things they are most 
ignorant of! What hopes did he not awaken in my bosom as I 
read his letter to a Sincere Enquirer, and how were they blasted 
when I met him and found that it was not he, but Hooker, 
Newman, Paul, etc. ! It is a sad fact that many believe, but 
very few give themselves up to what they believe so that they 
may have the substance of their belief" 

Isaac Hecker's business in Concord had, as usual, two sides. 
Externally it meant going on with Greek and Latin, under the 
guidance of the lately deceased George P. Bradford, a scholar 
of rare acquirements, whose acquaintance he had made at Brook 
Farm the previous year. The end he sought in this study was 
to fit himself for "working in the field of the church." But as 
the question of which church was not even yet fully settled in 
his mind, his search for the true religion still remained his deepest 
and most inmost purpose. Nevertheless, he was enjoying at this 
time one of his periods of profound interior and exterior peace. 
'' I feel," he writes, " that I am growing in God's grace. To 
Him I look for support. Will He not impart v/isdom as well as 
love ? " 

His surroundings at Concord are so vividly described in the 



140 The Life of Father Hecker. 

letters he wrote to his family that we cannot omit quotations 
from them. The first of these is dated at Brook Farm, and de- 
scribes his efforts to find a room after reaching the village. He 
seems to have gone at once to Mr. Bradford's house on his ar- 
rival. 

^' April 22, '44. — . . . After supper we sallied forth 
again. We saw a room, and what do you imagine they charged 
for it ? Seventy-five dollars a year ! ! This was out of the 
question. We went further and found a room, good size, very 
good people, furnished, and to be kept in order for eight dollars 
a quarter. This seemed reasonable to me, and also to Mr. Brad- 
ford. I felt safe in telling the lady that I thought I should take 
it. I requested Mr. Bradford to keep a look-out for me while I 
was gone, and if we could not find a better place before I re- 
turned I would accept this. This morning I left Concord to 
come and see Charles Dana concerning the books I shall require, 
and to see some of my friends. I got into Boston at ten o'clock, 
and, walked out here by dinner-time. All of the old set that are 
here were delighted to see me. I have conversed with a few of 
them, and find them more open to consider the claims of the 
Church than I had anticipated." 

"■ Concordy April 24, '44. — Dear Friends : This evening I can 
say that I am settled, comfortably settled in every particular. All 
that is needed for my comfort is here : a good straw bed, a la.rge 
table, carpet, washstand, book-case, stove, chairs, Jooking-glass — 
all, all that is needful. And this for seventy-five cents a week, 
including lights; wood is extra pay. This is the inanimate about 
me. The lady of the house, Mrs. Thoreau, is a woman. The 
only fear I have about her is that she is too much like dear 
mother — she will take too much care of me. She has told me 
how she used to sit up nights, waiting for a young man whom 
she had taken to board, to come home. He was a stranger to 
her, but still she insists that she must treat all as she would her 
own, and even with greater care. If you were to see her, 
mother, you would be perfectly satisfied that I have fallen into 
good hands, and met a second mother, if that is possible." 

''April 25, 1.30 P.M. — I have just finished my dinner; it 
was eifi hei'rlichcs Essen. Unleavened bread (from home), maple- 



His Life at Concord. 141 



sugar, and apples which I purchased this morning. Previous to 
taking dinner I said my first lesson to Mr. Bradford in Greek 
and Latin. 

'' I am extremely well situated, and feel contented in myself, 
and deeply grateful to you all for your goodness in helping me 
to pursue the real purpose of my being. All we can do is to 
be faithful to God and to the work He has given us to do, and, 
whatever end He may lead us to, to have that central faith that 
'all is for the best' There is only one life, and that is life in 
God ; and only one death, and that is separation from Him. 
And this life is not and cannot be measured by the external 
eye. We must be fixed in God before we can do anything 
rightly — study, labor, social, political or of any kind. 

" I have written this letter full of nothingness ; I will be more 
settled the next time and do better. Send all your love to me 
— think more of heaven and we shall grow happier. If once 
celestial love has touched us, we cannot rest until it dwells and 
abides in our hearts. To you all I send my warmest and purest 
love. — Isaac." 

''Concord, May 2, 1844. — Dear Friends: It was my intention 
not to write home until I had received a letter from you ; but 
as none has yet come, and I am in want of a few things, I will 
write you immediately. 

'* You can scarcely imagine how different my life is now from 
what it was at home. It is hke Hving in another world. It is 
possible that you might not be suited with the conditions here, 
but to me they are the very ones which are congenial to my 
present state of being. I am alone from early dawn to late at 
ni^ht.; no one to intrude upon my quiet except Mr. Bradford, 
who occupies the hour between twelve and one to hear my re- 
citations, and Mrs. Thoreau a few minutes in making my bed in 
the mornings. The rest of my time is devoted to study, com- 
munion, and, a little of it, to reading. How unlike the life at home! 

" The thought just occurs to me that if such a hfe seems 
desirable to you, how easily you could obtain it. What is it 
that costs so much labor of mind and body ? Is it not that which 
we consume on and in our bodies ? Then, if we reduce the 
consumption there will be less need of production. Most of our 
labor is labor for the body. We are treasuring up corruption 
for the day of death ; is this not so ? As we rise in spirit above 



142 The Life of Father Hecker. 

the body we shall bring all its appetites into subjection to the 
moral law. 

** This is what I should like you to do for me. All the food 
that I brought with me is gone, and as I would like to have my 
razor sent on, and as the articles you can give me would be 
better than any I can get here, you will be so kind as to send 
with it the following list, if you think best: i. Putin some hard 
bread. 2. A few unleavened wheat biscuits, such as I used to 
make. 3. Some unleavened Graham biscuits. 4. A five -cent or 
ten-cent loaf of bread, if you think it will keep good until it gets 
here. 5. Get me a linen summer frock-coat such as are worn — 
those loose ones. Dunster has my measure and he can cut it 
for you. Let it be made. I have only a summer jacket with 
me, and that is John's. 6. Do not forget the razor. You can 
put in any other simple, solid food, if you wish to send any. 
Do I ask too much from you ? If so, you must be kind enough 
to tell me. Your labor is already too great, and I am burdening 
you with more. 

'' How much my heart loves you all ! How unkindly I have 
spoken to you at times ! You will forgive me and love me none 
the less, will you not ? May we live together more and more in 
the unity of love." 

''May, 1844. — • • • My studies are pursued with the same 
spirit in which they were commenced, and there seems to me no 
reason to fear but that they will be continued in the same for 
some time to come. However, I would affirm what has been 
affirmed by me for these two years back, the only consistency 
that I can promise is submission to the Spirit that is guiding 
me, whatever may be the external appearance or superficial 
consequences to others. ... 

" How our astonishment should be excited to perceive that 
we have been in such a long sleep, and that even now we see 
but dimly. Let us each ask ourselves in whose business we are 
employed. Is it our Father's, or is it not ? If not, let us im- 
mediately turn to the business of our Father, the only object of 
our life. Let us submit wholly to the guidance of Love." 

*'To Mrs. Catherine J. Hecker. Concord, May 31, 
1844. — You speak of my situation as pleasant, and so it is to 
me. Though the house is situated on the street of a village, the 



His Life at Concord. 143 



street is beautifully arched \\\\\\ trees for some distance, and m>' 
room is very pleasant. One window is wholly shaded by sweet 
honeysuckle, which is now in blossom, filling the room with its 
mild fragrance. The little humming-birds visit its flowers fre- 
quently without being disturbed by my presence." 

The diary, which runs side by side with these letters, was, as 
usual, the recipient of more intimate self-communings than could 
be shared with any friend. It shows that although he was now 
well-nigh convinced of the truth of Catholicity, yet that he still 
felt a lingering indecision, produced, perhaps, by a haunting 
memory of the stern front of " discipline " he had encountered in 
Bishop Hughes. This seemed like a phantom of terror to the 
young social reformer, whose love of liberty, though rational, was 
then and ever afterwards one of the passions of his soul. Yet 
v/e rarely find now in these pages any statement of specific 
reasons for and against Catholicity such as were plentiful during 
the period preceding his acquaintance with Mr. Haight, Dr. Sea- 
bury, and Mr. Norris. He seems to shudder as he stands on the 
bank and looks upon the flowing and cleansing stream ; but his 
hesitancy is caused not so much by any unanswered difficulties 
of his reason as by his sensibilities, by vague feelings of alarm 
for the integrity of his manhood. He feared lest the waters 
might cleanse him by skinning him alive. Catholicity, as typi- 
fied in Bishop Hughes, her Celtic- American champion, seemed 
to him " a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass 
against the whole land." 

Now, Isaac Hecker was built for a missionary, and the ex- 
treme view of the primary value of highly-wrought discipline 
which he encountered everywhere among Catholics, though not 
enough to blind him to the essential liberty of the Church, was 
enough to delay him in his progress to her. There- can be little 
doubt that multitudes of men and women of less discernment and 
feebler will than nis, have been and still are kept entirely out 
of the Church by the same cause. 

Only at long intervals, as we near the last pages of the large 
and closely-written book containing the first volume of his diary, 
do we meet with those agonizing complaints of dryness, the dis- 
tress of doubt, the weary burden of insoluble difficulties, so com- 
mon heretofore. He seems, indeed, no longer battling ; the 
victory is won ; but it remains to know what are the spoils and 



144 T^^^^ Life of Father Hecker. 

where they are to be gathered. Of course there are interludes 

of his irrepressible philosophizing on moral questions. And at 

the very end, under date of May 23, 1844, we find the follow- 
ing: 

''This afternoon brings me to the close of this book. How 
different are the emotions with which I close it from those with 
which I opened it at Brook Farm, now little more (a month) 
than a year ago ! How fruitful has this year been to me ! How 
strangely mysterious and beautiful ! And now my soul foreshadows 
more the next year than ever it presaged before. My life is 
beyond my grasp, and bears me on will-lessly to its destined 
haven. Like a rich fountain it overflows on every side; from 
within flows unceasingly the noiseless tide. The many changes 
and unlooked-for results and circumstances, within and without, 
of the coming year I would no more venture to anticipate than 
to count the stars. It is to me now as if I had just been born, 
and I live in the Sabbath of creation. Every thing that I see 
I feel called on to give a name ; it has a new meaning to me. 
Should this life grow — what ? It is a singular fact that, although 
conscious of a more interior and potent force at work within, I 
am now more quiet and will-less than I was when it at first 
affected me. I feel like a child, full of joy and pliability ; and 
all ambition of every character seems to have left me. I see 
where I was heretofore, and the degree of externality which was 
mixed with the influences that I co-opefated with, an externality 
from which I now feel that I have been freed. It does seem to 
me that all worldly prospect that ever was before me is gone, 
and as if I were weak, very weak, in the sight of the world ; so 
I really am. I feel no more potency than a babe. Yet I have 
a will-less power of love which will conquer through me, and 
which, O gracious Lord, I never dreamt of before." 

In the middle of the above entry he thus notes an in- 
terruption, and records a lesson taught by the late New England 
spring : " George and Burrill Curtis came in, and I have just 
returned from a walk in the woods with them. May the buds 
within blossom, and may their fruit ripen in my prayers to 
God." 

He was now, indeed, very near his goal, though even yet he 
did not clearly see it. And once more all his active powers 



His Life at Concord. 145 



deserted him. Study became impossible. His mind was drawn 
so strongly in upon itself that neither work nor play, neither 
books nor the renewed intercourse which at this period he sought 
with his old friends in Boston and at Brook Farm, could any 
longer fasten his attention. He opens his new diary with a record 
of the trial he has just made in order to discover *' whether in 
mixing with the world I should not be somewhat influenced by 
their life and brought into new relations with my studies. But 
it was to no purpose that I went. . . . There was no in- 
ducement that I could imagine strong enough to keep me from 
returning. Ole Bull, whom I very much wished to hear again, 
was to play the next evening ; and Parley Pratt, a friend whom 
I had not met for a great length of time, and whom I did 
wish to see, was to be in town the next day. There were many 
other things to keep me, but none of them had the least effect. 
I could no more keep myself there than a man could sink him- 
self in the Dead Sea, and so I had to come home. 

'* I feel a strong inclination to doze and slumber, and more 
and more in these slumbers the dim shadows that appear in my 
waking state become clearer, and my conversation is more real 
and pleasant to me. I feel a double consciousness in this state, 
and think, ' Now, is not this real ? I will recollect it all, what 
I saw and what I said ' ; but it flies and is lost when I awake. 
I call this sleeping, but sleep it is not; for in this 
state I am more awake than at any other time." 

A few days later, on June 5, he notes that 

*' Although my meals are made of unleavened bread and figs, 
and my drink is water, and I eat no more than supports my 
body, yet do I feel sinfully self-indulgent." 

He resolves, moreover, to trouble himself no more about the 
fact that he cannot continue his studies. On this subject, and on 
the passivity to which he was now compelled, he had written as 
explicitly as he could to his friend Brownson, and on June 7 he 
received a response which had such an immediate result upon his 
future that we transcribe it entire : 

'' Mt. Bellingham, Jinie 6, 1844. — My dear Isaac: I thank 
you for your letter, and the frankness with which you speak of 
your present interior state. You ask for my advice, but I hardly 



146 The Life of Father Hecker. 

know what advice to give. There is much in your present state 
to approve, also much which is dangerous. The dreamy luxury 
of indulging one's thoughts and ranging at ease through the 
whole spirit- world is so captivating, and when frequently indulged 
in acquires such power over us, that we cease to be free men. 
The power to control your thoughts and feelings and to fix 
them on what object you choose is of the last necessity, as it is 
the highest aim of spiritual culture. Be careful that you do not 
mistake a mental habit into which you have fallen for the guid- 
ance of the All-wise. Is it not the very sacrifice you are 
appointed to make, to overcome this spiritual luxury and to 
become able to do that which is disagreeable ? Where is the 
sacrifice in following what the natural tendencies and fixed habits 
of our mind dispose us to do ? What victory have you acquired, 
what power to conquer in the struggle for sanctity do you 
possess, when you cannot so far control your thoughts and feel- 
ings as to be able to apply yourself to studies which you feel 
are necessary ? Here is your warfare. You have not won the 
victory till you have become as able to drudge at Latin or Greek 
as to give up worldly wealth, pleasures, honors, or distinctions. 

'* But, my dear Isaac, you cannot gain this victory alone, nor 
by mere private meditation and prayer. You can obtain it only 
through the grace of God, and the grace of God only through 
its appointed channels. You are wrong. You do not begin 
right. Do you really beheve the Gospel ? Do you really believe 
the Holy Catholic Church ? If so, you must put yourself under 
the direction of the Church. I have commenced my preparations 
for uniting myself with the Catholic Church. I do not as yet 
belong to the family of Christ. I feel it. I can be an alien no 
longer, and without the Church I know, by my own past ex- 
perience, that I cannot attain to purity and sanctity of life. I 
need the counsels, the aids, the chastisements, and the con- 
solations of the Church. It is the appointed medium of salvation, 
and how can we hope for any good except through it ? Our 
first business is to submit to it, that we may receive a maternal 
blessing. Then we may start fair. 

" You doubtless feel a repugnance to joining the Church. 
But we ought not to be ashamed of Christ ; and the Church 
opens a sphere for you, and you especially. You are not to 
dream your life away. Your devotion must be regulated and 
directed by the discipline of the Church. You know that there 
is a large Roman Catholic population in our country, especially 
in Wisconsin. The bishop of that Territory is a German. Now, 
here is your work — to serve this German population. And you 
can do it without feeling yourself among foreigners. Here is the 
cross you are to take up. Your cross is to resist this tendency 
to mysticism, to sentimental luxury, which is really enfeebling 



His Life at Concord. 147 



your soul and preventing you from attaining to true spiritual 
blessedness. 

** I think you would better give up Greek, but command 
yourself sufficiently to master the Latin ; that you need, and 
cannot do without. Get the Latin, and with that and the Eng- 
lish, French, and German which you already know, you can get 
along very well. But don't be discouraged. 

'*I want you to come and see our good bishop. He is an 
excellent man — learned, polite, easy, affable, affectionate, and ex- 
ceedingly warm-hearted. I spent two hours with him immediately 
after parting with you in Washington Street, and a couple of 
hours yesterday. I like him very much. 

"I have made up my mind, and I shall enter the Church if 
she will receive me. There is no use in resisting. You cannot 
be an Anglican, you must be a Catholic or a mystic. If you 
enter the Church at all, it must be the Catholic. There is 
nothing else. So let me beg you, my dear Isaac, to begin by 
owning the Church and receiving her blessing. 

" My health is very good, the family are all very well ; I 
hope you are well. Let me hear from you often. Forgive me 
if I have said anything harsh or unkind in this letter, for all is 
meant in kindness, and be assured of my sincere and earnest 
affection. Yours truly, 

" O. A. Brownson." 




CHAPTER XV. 

AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH. 

THE first effect of Brownson's letter was to throw its recipient 
into a state of great though brief perplexity. That final strug- 
gle, strange and painful, in which the soul for the last time con- 
tends against its happiness ; in which it is drawn by an invincible 
attraction, knowing that it will yield yet striving still to resist ; is 
one that must remain but half-comprehended by most of those to 
whom Catholic truth is an inheritance. And yet there is an ex- 
planation which Father Hecker himself would possibly have given. 
" Do you know what God is ? " he said to the present writer in 
1882, in that abrupt fashion with which he often put the deepest 
questions. " That is not what I mean," he went on, after getting 
a conventional reply : ''I'll tell you what God is. He is the Eter- 
nal Lover of the soul.'' That shudder of blind aversion which is 
a part of the experience of so many converts, is an instinctive 
testimony that the call to the truth is more than natural, while 
the overpowering attraction which attends it witnesses that na- 
ture must needs obey or perish. The Church, too, is not heard 
by the soul merely as the collective voice of many men and ages 
of men agreed upon the truth, but as a mystic personality which 
makes her the imperative ambassadress of Christ. For she is 
the Spouse of the Lamb, and in her the Incarnate Word obtains 
a voice which is no less single in its personality than multitudi- 
nous in its tones. 

Much as Isaac Hecker had considered the matter, studying, 
reading, praying, assuring himself from time to time that if any 
church were true this was the one, and that to enter it was 
probably his duty, now that Brownson's weight was likewise 
thrown into the scale and it went down with a warning thud, he 
thrilled through with apprehension. '' I feel like throwing all 
up," he wrote in the diary on the day the letter reached him. 
" Some cannot rest. How much better zvould it have been could 
I have remained in quietness at my daily pursuits, and not been 
led to where I nozv fifzd myself 

Then he questions himself: '' What have I against the Cath- 
olic Church ? At this moment I cannot say that I have any- 
thing that is essential. And she meets my wants on every side. 

" Oh, this is the deepest event of my life ! I would have 



At the Door of the Church. ' 149 



united myself to any one of the Protestant sects if I had found 
any that would have answered the demands of my nature. Why 
should I now hesitate when I find the Catholic Church will do 
so? Is not this the self-will which revolts against the involun- 
tary will of the Spirit ? 

" The fundamental question is, Am I willing to submit my 
will to the guidance and direction of the Church ? If she is the 
body of Christ; if she is the channel of the Holy Ghost; if 
she is the inspired body illumined by Christ's Spirit ; in a word, 
if she is the Catholic Church ; if I would serve God and human- 
ity ; if I would secure the favor of God, and heaven hereafter ; 
why should I 7iot submit to her ?" 

But however painful this final indecision may have been, it was 
of short duration. Brownson's letter reached Concord on Friday 
morning, and on Saturday Isaac Hecker went into Boston to see 
Bishop Fenwick and put himself under instruction. That done, 
his peace not merely returned, but he felt that it rested on more 
solid grounds than heretofore. Yet, curiously enough, it is at 
this point we come upon almost the first trace of his stopping 
seriously to consider the adverse sentiments of others with regard 
to any proposed action on his part. Now that he means to range 
himself, he turns to look back at the disorderly host which he is 
quitting, not so much, or at least not primarily, for the sake of the 
order and regularity and solidity of that to which it is opposed, 
but because a true instinct has taught him that unity is the exter- 
nal mark of truth, as equilibrium is the test of a just balance. 
In his diary of June 11, 1844, after recording 'that he has just 
returned from Boston, where he has seen the bishop and his coad- 
jutor. Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick, and received from the 
latter a note of introduction to the president of Holy Cross Col- 
lege, at Worcester, Mass., he adds: 

" I intend to stay there as long as it seems pleasant to me, and 
then go on to New York and there unite myself with the Church. 

" I sigh, and feel that this step is the most important of my 
life. My highest convictions, my deepest wants, lead me to it ; 
and should I not obey them ? There is no room to harbor a 
doubt about it. My friends will look upon it with astonishment, 
and probably use the common epithets, delusion, fanaticism, and 
blindness. But so I wish to appear to minds like theirs ; other- 
wise this would be unsatisfactory to me. Men call that super- 



150 TJie Life of Father Hecker. 

stition which they have not the feehng to appreciate, and that 
fanaticism which they have not the spiritual perception to per- 
ceive. The Protestant world admires, extols, and flatters him who 
will write and speak high-sounding and heroic words ; who will 
assert that he will follow truth wherever it leads, at all sacrifices 
and hazards ; but no sooner does he do so than it slanders and 
persecutes him for being what he professed to be. Verily it 
has separated faith from works. 

"This is a heavy task; it is a great undertaking, a serious, 
sacred, sincere, and solemn step ; it is the most vital and eternal 
act, and as such do I feel it in all its importance, weight, and 
power. O God ! Thou who hast led me by Thy Heavenly mes- 
sengers, by Thy divine grace, to make this new, unforeseen, and 
religious act of duty, support me in the day of trial. Support 
me, O Lord, in my confessions ; give me strength and purity to 
speak freely the whole truth without any equivocation or attempt 
at justification. O Lord, help Thy servant when he is feeble and 
would fall. 

" One thing that gives me much peace and joy is that all 
worldly inducernents, all temptations toward self- gratification what- 
ever, are in favor of the Anglican Church and in opposition to 
the Catholic Church. And on this account my conscience feels 
free from any unworthy motive in joining it. The Roman Cath- 
olic Church is the most despised, the poorest, and, according to 
the world, the least respectable of any ; this on account of the 
class of foreigners of which it is chiefly composed in this country. 
In this respect it presents to me no difficulty of any sort, nor 
demands the least sacrifice. But the new relations in which it will 
place me, and the new duties which will be required of me, arc 
strange to me, and hence I shall feel all their weight at once." 

His premonitions were speedily fulfilled, though probably not 
in the extreme form which he anticipated. The spirit of courtesy 
which prevailed throughout his family doubtless prevented any but 
the mildest criticism on his action. But even that had hitherto 
been spared him. There had been anxiety and much questioning 
about his final course, but that it would end in this way does not 
seem to have been seriously apprehended. On the same day on 
which he made the entry just quoted he wrote the following^ 
letter to them : 

''June II, 1844. — On Saturday last I went into Boston and 



At the Door of the Church. 151 



did not return until this morning (Tuesday). . . . My pur- 
pose in going was to see Bishop Fen wick of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, to learn what are the preliminaries necessary for 
one who wishes to be united to the Church. I saw the bishop 
and his coadjutor, men of remarkable goodness, candor, and 
frankness. I was chiefly interested with his coadjutor, and spent 
some hours with him on Monday. And this is the result to 
which I have come : That soon, probably next week, I shall go 
from here to Worcester, where there is a Catholic college, and 
stay there for a few days, perhaps a fortnight, to see the place, 
become acquainted with their practical religious life and their 
system of intellectual instruction. From there I shall go on 
home to New York, and, after having gone through the requisite 
prehminaries, be united to the Roman Catholic Church in our 
city. . . . Before I make any unalterable step, I wish to see 
you all and commune with you concerning this movement on 
my part. . 

** Whatever theories and speculations may be indulged in and 
cherished by those opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, their 
influence, however important they may seem, is not sufficiently 
vital to prevent me from being united to it. It satisfies and 
meets my deepest wants ; and on this ground, setting aside any 
other for the moment, I feel like affirming, in the spirit of the 
man whom Christ made to see,* I know not whether this Church 
be or be not what certain men call it, but this I know : it has 
the life my heart is thirsting for, and of which my spirit is in 
great need. 

" A case in point : The sermon of Dr. Seabury on the la- 
mented death of Arthur Carey is as far from satisfying my heart ■ 
felt longings as Platonism would be to the Christian. Read the 
doctrine of the Catholic Church on the Communion of Saints in 
the Catechism of the Council of Trent attentively and devoutly, 
and you will see and feel the wide difference in doctrine and life 
between it and that held even by the high-church Anghcan. 
It may be said in excuse for Dr. Seabury, that he has to be 
prudent and cautious on account of the state of mind of those 
whom he has to speak to. Well enough ; but why should one 
go to a weak and almost dried-up spring when there is one 
equally near, fresh, always flowing and full of life ? . . . 

* John ix. 24 : We know this man is a sinner. He said therefore to them ; If he be a 
sinner, I know not ; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. 



152 The Life of Father Hecker. 



There may be those, and I do not question there are many such 
good persons, who do not feel the deep demands of the spir- 
itual nature as profoundly as others do, and that the Anglican 
Church fully satisfies all their needs. But even in her bosom 
there are many who think that if the Oxford tendencies are 
Anghcan, she is very idolatrous and exceedingly superstitious, 
because they feel no need for so much discipline and ceremony, 
and such faith in the invisible. . . . All reasons that can 
tempt one in my position are in favor of the Anglican Church, 
and it is a source of much joy that there is no conceivable in- 
ducement of a worldly or mixed nature for me to join the Roman 
Catholic Church. If there were I should distrust myself. . . 
It seems to me that the difference between my embracing the 
Roman CathoHc Church and any other is the same as the differ- 
ence between remaining as I am, and selling all that I have and 
following Christ." 

His deference for his friends' opinions, though he made their 
views no condition of his action, is beautifully shown by the fol- 
lowing words: *'John, and all who feel like giving me advice, you 
will not hesitate in giving it freely and frankly. There are many 
reasons for my present course ; it is impossible for me to put them 
all on paper. But when I return home and meet you all again, 
we will in love speak of this in common communion : until then 
I will not take any decisive step. I suppose you feel as little 
inclined to speak to others of the decision I have come to as I 
do td have it prematurely known." 

To the brother whose heart was most his own he devotes the 
concluding words of the letter : 

"What is brother George's mind respecting the need of receiv- 
ing this diviner life in order to bring us into a closer commu- 
nion with God and make us inhabitants of heaven ? George, 
shall we go arm-in-arm in our heavenly journey as we have 
done in our earthly one ?" 

While awaiting an answer to this letter he began another, in 
which he summarizes more explicitly such of his reasons for be- 
coming a Catholic as might appeal on ordinary grounds of con- 
troversy to his mother and his brother John, the latter of whom 
had recently become an T^piscopalian. Our extracts, howe\er. 



At the Door of the Church. 153 



will be made from the passages more strictly personal and cha- 
racteristic : 

" Concord, Jiuie 14, 1844. — Until I hear from you I cannot 
say how you may view my resolution or feel regarding the deci- 
sion I have come to, and therefore I am at a loss what to say 
to you respecting it. One thing must strike you as inexplicable : 
that I relinquish my studies here so suddenly. This arises from 
the fact that I have not kept you perfectly informed concerning 
the change my mind has for some time been undergoing with 
regard to the object and end of study, its office and its benefits. 
I kept silent, thinking that my views might be but temporary, 
and that it was unnecessary to trouble you with them. My 
simple faith is, in a few words, that we must first seek the 
kingdom of God, and then all necessary things will be given us. 
And this kingdom is not found through nature, philosophy, 
science, art, or by any other method than that of the Gospel : 
the perfect surrender of the whole heart to God." 

We stop here to remark that such expressions as these are 
neither to be taken as evidences of a passing disgust for the 
drudgery of text-book tasks, nor as signs of an indolent dispo- 
sition. They are the assertion of a principle which Father Hecker 
maintained throughout his life. He never felt the least interest 
in studies not undertaken as a result of some supernatural impulse, 
or pursued in view of some supernatural aim. He looked with 
the coldest unconcern upon such investigations of science as pro- 
mise nothing toward solving the problems which perplex human- 
ity on the moral side, or which do not contribute to the natural 
well-being of men. With the pursuit of any science which does 
promise such results he was in the fullest sympathy, and was 
himself an unwearied student. It was anything but intellectual 
indolence which caused him to put away his books. He was 
naturally of a busy temperament : if men who knew him but 
slightly mig^t think him visionary, no man could know him at 
all and consider him a sluggard. We shall see in the sequel 
how, under extremely critical circumstances, the assertion of this 
principle was wrung from him by the constraining force of his 
interior guide. Much of what follows illustrates this trait of 
character. 

The letter last quoted from had not yet been sent when the 



154 ' The Life of Father Hecker. 

answer to his announcement of June 1 1 reached him, and he 
added a postscript. The only point in it to which he alludes or 
makes any direct reply is the gentle expression of his mother's 
disapprobation of his purpose : 

" Your letter and draft, brother George, came this morning. 
You say mother would prefer my joining the Anghcan Church. 
The reasons why she prefers this are such as would doubtless 
govern me if I did not feel still deeper and stronger reasons to 
overcome them. . . . My present convictions are deeper far 
than any I have ever experienced, and are not hastily decided 
upon." 

Turning now to the diary, the entries made at this time seem 
especially characteristic : 

^^ June 13, 1844. — I f^^l very cheerful and at ease since I 
have consented to join the Catholic Church. Never have I felt 
the quietness, the immovableness, and the permanent rest that 
I do now. It is inexpressible. I feel that essential and interior 
permanence which nothing exterior can disturb, and no act which 
it calls on me to perform will move in the least. It is with a 
perfect ease and gracefulness that I never dreamed of, that I 
shall unite with the Church. It will not change but fix my life. 
No external relations, events, or objects can disturb this un- 
reachable quietness or break the deep repose in which I am. 

'' The exoteric eye is double ; the esoteric eye is single. 

" The external world is divisional ; the internal world is 
unity. 

"■ The esoteric includes the exoteric, but the exoteric excludes 
the esoteric. 

" The man can move all faculties, organs, limbs ; but they 
cannot move the man. 

''The Creator moves the creature, and the creature moves 
the created. 

'* We know God by looking towards Him with the single eye. 

'* To-morrow I go with R. W. Emerson to Harvard to see 
Lane and Alcott, and shall stay until Sunday. We shall not 
meet each other, for I can meet him on no other grounds than 
those of love. We may talk intellectually together, and remark, 
and reply, and remark again." 



At the Door of the Chureh. 155 

We give the reader from the diary the followiiiL; estimate of 
a transcendentaHst, mainly to serv^e as a back<^round for the picture 
which Isaac Hecker drew of his own mind in the succeeding pages : 

'' Jkhc 14. — A transcendentaHst is one who has keen sight 
but Httle warmth of heart ; who has fine conceits but is destitute 
of the rich glow of love. He is en rapport with the spiritual 
world, unconscious of the celestial one. He is all nerve and 
no blood — colorless. He talks of self-reliance, but fears to trust 
himself to love. He never abandons himself to love, but is al- 
ways on the lookout for some new fact. His nerves are always 
tight-stretched, like the string of a bow ; his life is all effort. In 
a short period he loses his tone. Behold him sitting on a chair; 
he is not sitting, but braced upon its angles, as if his bones were 
of iron and his nerves steel ; every nerve is dra\^Tn, his hands are 
closed like a miser's — it is his lips and head that speak, not his 
tongue and heart. He prefers talking about love to possessing it, 
as he prefers Socrates to Jesus. Nature is his church, and he is 
his own god. He is a dissecting critic — heartless, cold. What 
would excite love and sympathy in another, excites in him curi 
osity and interest. He would have written an essay on the power 
of the soul at the foot of the Cross. 

"That the shaping of events is not wholly in our own hands 
my present unanticipated movement has clearly demonstrated to 
me. ... I know of no act that I could make which would 
have more influence to shape my destiny than my union with 
the Catholic Church. ... It is very certain to me that my life 
is now as it never has been. It seems that I live, feel, and act 
from my heart. That reads, talks, hears, sees, smells, and all. All 
is unity with me, all love. Instead of exciting thoughts and 
ideas, as all things have done heretofore, they now excite love, 
cheerful emotion, and gladness of heart. 

*' To the Spirit within I address myself: So long as I struggled 
against Thee I had pain, sorrow, anguish, doubt, weeping, and 
distress of soul. Again and again have I submitted to Thee, 
though ever reluctantly ; yet was it always in the end for my 
good. Oh ! how full of love and goodness art Thou to suffer in 
us and for us, that we may be benefited and made happy. It 
is from Thy own pure love for us, for Thy happiness cannot be 
increased or diminished, that Thou takest upon Thee all the suf- 
fering of the children. 



156 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" Lord, if I would or could give myself wholly up to Thee, 
nothing but pure joy, complete happiness, and exquisite pleasure 
would fill all my spirit, soul, and body. The Lord desires our 
whole happiness ; it is we who hinder Him from causing it by our 
struggles against His love-working Spirit. 

" Who is the Lord ? Is He not our nearest friend ? Is any 
closer to us than He when we are good ? Is any further from us 
when we are wicked ? His simple presence is blessedness. Our 
marriage with the Lord should be so complete that nothing could 
attract our attention from Him. 

V We shall speak best to men when we do not reflect on whom 
we are talking to. Speak always as if in the presence of God, 
where you must be if you would speak to benefit your neighbor. 

*' If we are pure before God the eyes of men will never make 
us ashamed. 

'* We must be blind to all things and have our single eye 
turned toward God when we would act in any manner upon 
earth- — when we would heavenize it." 

Here ends the contemporary record of his life in Concord. 
The next letters are dated at Worcester ; the next entry in the 
diary at New York. There remain, however, some interesting 
allusions to it in the articles in this magazine of 1887 concerning 
Dn Brownson, and some conversations, still more graphic, in the 
pages of the memoranda. 




v::^^^ 



CHAPTER XVI. 

AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH. — CONTINUED. 

THE first Bishop of Boston, John Louis de Chevcrus, who left 
that diocese to become successively the Bishop of Montau- 
ban and the Cardinal-Archbishop of Bordeaux, was, in the strict- 
est sense, a missionary during his American episcopate. Thor- 
oughly French in blood, in training, in manners, and in zeal, his 
penetrating intelligence not less than his saintly life and his 
tireless charity recommended him to men of all creeds and of 
none. His departure from Boston was regarded by all its citi- 
zens as a public misfortune, and by himself as cause for profound 
personal sorrow. He had learned there a lesson of liberty which 
he found it hard to forget when he went away. One of his 
biographers records that Charles X., whose offer to make him 
Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Cheverus had declined, once 
questioned him concerning the liberty enjoyed by the Church in 
the United States. '' There," said the archbishop in reply, '^ I 
could have established missions in every church, founded semi- 
naries in every quarter, and confided them to the care of Jesuits 
without any one thinking or saying aught against my proceed- 
ings ; all opposition to them would have been regarded as an 
act of despotism and a violation of right." ''That people un- 
derstand .liberty, at least," returned the king; "when will it be 
understood among us ? " 

We have spoken of Bishop Cheverus because, at the time of 
Isaac Hecker's acquaintance with his successors, his influence 
was still felt in Boston. 

His immediate successor was Benedict Joseph Fenwick, a 
Marylander, descended in direct line from one of the original 
English Catholic pilgrims who founded that colony under Lord 
Baltimore. During his episcopate the diocese grew amazingly. 
When he went to it, in 1826, although it comprised the whole 
of New England, it contained but two churches fit for divine 
service, and only two priests besides himself When he died, in 
1846, he left behind him two bishoprics where there had been 
but one ; while in that of Boston alone there were then fifty 
churches, served by as many priests. Although conversions had 
not been rare, the increase was mainly due to immigration, 
which the great famine in Ireland was speedily to increase. The 

^57 



158 The Life of Father Hecker. 

efforts of Bishop Fenwick and those of his coadjutor and succes- 
sor were, in the nature of things, conservative rather than ag- 
gressive. 

Bishop Fitzpatrick, also, was American by birth and training. 
A native of Boston, he was reared in its pubHc grammar and 
Latin schools until the age of seventeen, when he began his 
studies for the priesthood, which he finished in France. Both of 
these prelates continued the tradition of Cheverus so far as their 
own persons were concerned. But while they easily won and re- 
tained the respect of their more intelligent Protestant fellow-citi- 
zens, the confidence they inspired as men was not ample enough 
to protect the Church over which they ruled when once it be- 
gan to show signs of solid prosperity. Cheverus was not wrong 
in counting with assurance upon American love for and under- 
standing of true liberty, but he doubtless owed more than he 
thought at the time to the insignificance and scanty numbers of 
his flock. There came a period, even in the career of his im- 
mediate successor, when liberty itself seemed but a feeble sap- 
ling which a strong wind of stupid bigotry might avail to root 
out and cast away ; while the chronicle of Bishop Fitzpatrick's 
episcopate contains the record of convents invaded under forms 
of law, and of both convents and churches sacked and burned 
by '' Native American " mobs, who were secure of their immunity 
from punishment. Such outrages, witnessed by the second and 
third Bishops of Boston, and the incessant conflict to v/hlch they 
were compelled with the bigotry which caused them and which 
protected their perpetrators, predisposed both them and their 
clergy to a distrustful attitude toward converts like Brownson and 
Hecker, in whom American traits of character were very con- 
spicuous. Dr. Brownson has recorded in TJie Convert, p. 374, 
the fact that his entrance into the Church was delayed for 
months by his fear of explaining to Bishop Fitzpatrick the 
precise road by which he had approached it. He says : 

" I really thought that I had made some philosophical dis- 
coveries which would be of value even to Catholic theologians 
in convincing and converting unbelievers, and I dreaded to 
have them rejected by the Catholic bishop. But I perceived 
almost instantly that he either was ignorant of my doctrine 
of life or placed no confidence in it ; and I felt that he was 
far more likely, bred as he had been in a different philo- 
sophical school from myself, to oppose than to accept. I had, 



At the Door of the Church. 159 

indeed, however highly I esteemed the doctrine, no special at- 
tachment to it for its own sake, and could, so far as it was 
concerned, give it up at a word without a single regret; but, if 
I rejected or waived it, what reason had I for regarding the 
Church as authoritative for natural reason, or for recognizing 
any authority in the bishop himself to teach me ? Here was 
the difficulty. . . My trouble was great, and the bishop 

could not relieve me, for I dared not disclose to him its source." 

The reader will understand that we do not compare the 
course of Bishop Fitzpatrick in Brownson's case with that taken 
by him toward Isaac Hecker. The latter was a young man, 
unknown to the bishop save by what he may have said of his 
own antecedents, while Brownson was a well-known publicist, 
concerning whom some reserve was natural and prudent. 

With Bishop Fen wick, who was already in failing health, 
the new candidate for admission to the fold seems to have had 
very little intercourse. As we have seen, the journal makes 
only a passing reference to him, but is more explicit with 
regard to his coadjutor. Certain points in their interview 
which remained ever fresh in his memory were, at the time, 
cast into the shade by his deep preoccupation with what may, 
perhaps, be called the spiritual as distinguished from the intel- 
lectual side of the Church. That in her which makes her the 
tender and bountiful mother of the simple was what chiefly 
attracted him, just as others are mainly drawn to her as the 
adequate teacher and guide of the intellect. If he found the 
door at which he was knocking something hard in turning on 
its hinges ; if the vestibule into which he was ushered seemed 
a trifle narrower than he had expected at the entrance of a 
temple so world-wide; his satisfaction at having determined 
upon entrance made all other considerations for the moment 
dwindle. But that the impressions he received were perma- 
nent, in their suggestiveness at least, is witnessed by an article 
in this magazine for April, 1887, entitled ''Dr. Brownson and 
Bishop Fitzpatrick," as well as by the several references to 
this period which occur in the memoranda. 

In the article just named Father Hecker threw into a para- 
graph or two, which we subjoin, the substance of his first, and 
perhaps at this time his only, interview with Bishop Fitzpatrick : 

" It was always diflicult to detect how much of conviction 



l6o The Life of Father Hecker. 



and how much of banter there was in his treatment of men 
engaged in the actual intellectual movement of our times. I 
found such to be the case in my own intercourse with him. He 
always attacked me in a bantering way, but, I thought, half in 
earnest too. Hence I never found it advisable to enter into 
argument with him. How can you argue with a man, a brilliant 
wit and an accomplished theologian, who continually flashes back 
and forth between first principles and witticisms ? When I would 
undertake to grapple with him on first principles he would throw 
me off with a joke, and while I was parrying the joke he was 
back again upon first principles. 

'' An illustration of his way of treating men and questions 
was his reception of me when I presented myself to him, some 
months before Dr. Brownson did, for reception into the Church. 
^ What truths were the stepping-stones that led you here?' he 
would have asked if he had had the temperament of the apostle. 
But instead of searching for truth in me he began to search for 
error. I had lived with the Brook Farm Community and with the 
Fruitlands Community, and before that had been a member of a 
Workingman's party in New York City, in all which organizations 
the right of private ownership of property had been a prime 
question. . . . But, as for my part, at the time Bishop 
Fitzpatrick wanted me to purge myself of communism, I had 
settled the question in my own mind, and on principles which 
I afterwards found to be Catholic. The study and settlement of 
the question of ownership was one of the things that led me 
into the Church, and I am not a little surprised that what was 
a door to lead me into the Church seems at this day to be a 
door to lead some others out. But when the bishop attacked me 
about it, it was no longer with me an actual question. I had 
settled the question of private ownership in harmony with Cath- 
olic principles, or I should not have dared to present myself as 
a convert. But I mention this because it illustrates Bishop 
Fitzpatrick's character. 

** His was, indeed, a first-class mind both in natural gifts and 
acquired cultivation, but his habitual bearing was that of sus- 
picion of error ; as man and prelate he had a joyful readiness 
to search it out and correct it from his own point of view. He 
was a type of mind common then and not uncommon now — the 
embodiment of a purpose to refute error, and to refute it by 
condemnation direct, authoritative even if argumentative : the 



At the Door of the Church. i6i 

other type of mind would seek for truth amidst the error, esta- 
bhsh its existence, applaud it, and endeavor to make it a basis 
for further truth and a fulcrum for the overthrow of the error 
connected with it. 

" It will be seen, then, what kind of man Dr. Brownson first 
met as the official exponent of Catholicity, one hardly capable 
of properly understanding- and dealing with a mind like his ; for 
he was one who had come into the possession of the full truth 
not so much from hatred of error as from love of truth. Brown- 
son's soul was intensely faithful to its personal convictions, faithful 
unto heroism — for that is the temper of men who seek the whole 
truth free from cowardice, or narrowness, or bias. He has ad- 
mitted that the effect of his intercourse with the bishop was not 
fortunate. He confesses that he forced him to adopt a line of 
public controversy foreign to his genius, and one which had not 
brought him into the Church, and perhaps could not have done 
so." 

The memoranda contain a more familiar account of this inter- 
view : 

" I presented myself for instruction and reception into the 
Church at the episcopal residence, and was received by the old 
bishop, Fenwick. He questioned me on the essential doctrines 
and found me as I was ; that is, firm as a rock and perfectly clear 
in my belief. Then he said, * You had better see Bishop John.' 
I did so. He tried to get me started on questions of modern 
theology such as he suspected I might be (as he would doubtless 
think, knowing my antecedents) unsound on ; for example, rights 
of property, etc. I refused to speak my sentiments on them. 
I said I had no difficulties about anything to submit to him. I 
knew the Catholic faith and wished to be received into the 
Church at once. I had come seeking the means to save my 
soul, and I wanted nothing from him but to be prepared for 
baptism." 

More interesting than either of these narrations is the follow- 
ing conversation, recorded on July 4, 1884. Besides furnishing 
a very explicit answer to a question which may occur to some 
minds, as to why a man who always took such a hopeful view 
of human nature as Isaac Hecker did, should not have been 
repelled from CathoHcity by the doctrine of original sin, it adds 



1 62 The Life of Father Hecker. 

some further particulars to the meagre array of facts in our 
possession : 

*' Suppose," he was asked, '' that the deHverances of the 
Council of Trent on original sin, and the theories of Bellarmine 
on that doctrine, had been offered you during your transition 
period : what would you have thought of them ? " 

"■ I would have received them readily enough. Why, the 
book I took to Concord to study was the Catechism of the 
Council of Trent, which has the strongest kind of statement of 
that doctrine. Bellarmine's formula of nudus and midatus would 
have opened my eyes amazingly to a solution of the whole 
difficulty." * 

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, to which Father 
Hecker so often refers, was the very best book he could have had 
for learning just what Catholicity is in doctrine and practice. It 
is unique in -CathoHc literature, being the only authoritative ex- 
pression of the Church, in extended form, on matters of pastoral 
theology. Outside the dogmatic circle of doctrinal definition it 
enjoys the fullest and most distinct authorization. The express 
command of the council caused it to be prepared by a special 
congregation of prelates and divines, and it was promulgated to 
the episcopate to be translated into the language of the people 
and expounded to them by all pastors. It may be said of it 
that it is the only book which has the Catholic Church for its 
author. It is a book which never can grow old ; and in witness 
of that perennial quality, it may be mentioned that Cardinal 
Newman said that he never preached without using it in prepar- 
ation. It is an exponent of Catholic truth absolutely free from 
the danger of private, or national, or racial, or traditional bias — 
the very book Isaac Hecker was in need of Its plentiful use 
of Scripture ; its confident appeal to antiquity ; its perfect clear- 
ness; its completeness ; its tone of conviction no less than its 
attitude of authority ; make it to such minds as his the very all- 
sufficient organ of truth. Furthermore, the entire system of doc- 

* Reference is here made to a very famous saying of Bellarmine's in explanation of a 
prevalent teaching on original sin. According to that teaching, if Adam had been originally 
constituted in a state of pure nature, devoid of supernatural gifts and graces, his spiritual con- 
dition might be described as naked— nudus. On the other hand, man as now born is nudatus, 
stripped of those gifts and graces, suffering the penal privation of them on account of Adam's 
sin. 

"The corruption of nature," says Bellarmine, "does not come from the want of any 
natural gift, or from the accession of any evil quality, but simply from the loss of a super- 
natural gift on account of Adam's sin." 



Ar the Door of the Cluirch. 163 



trine and morals known to revealed religion finds here its ade- 
quate exposition. We are glad of an occasion to say these 
words, not merely to chronicle the usefulness of the book to 
Father Hecker, but also to recommend its restoration to its 
proper place, which both by merit and by authority is the first 
in the moral and pastoral literature of the Church. 

" The truth is," continue the memoranda, " that original sin 
as taught by the CJiurcJi would never have been a great diffi- 
culty to me : of course the Calvinistic doctrine is quite a differ- 
ent affair. 

" I was led, after I got to work at the Catechism of the 
Council of Trent, in a way quite positive. For example, one 
thing I wanted was a satisfaction of that feeling and sentiment 
which has made so many persons Spiritualists. I found that in 
the Church there was no impassable barrier dividing the liv- 
ing from the departed. That was an intense delight to me.* 
The doctrine of penance, and the forgiveness of sins in the 
Sacrament of Penance, had a wonderful beauty as soon as 
I found them. To be taught that God had somehow given 
men power to dispense His graces and mercies made me say, 
Oh, how delightful a doctrine that is, if I only could believe 
it ! The doctrine of the Communion of Saints and that of 
the Sacrament of Penance were very pleasing to me. Hence, 
I soon saw that what I already had of truth and light ; what 
my best nature and conscience and my clearest natural knowl- 
edge told me was truth ; was but elevated and lifted up be- 
yond all conception by these and other doctrines of the Church. 
From this I was soon in a position to appreciate the Church's 
claim to authoritative teaching. If she, and she alone, had 
taught such things, she must possess God's teaching authority. 

"■ When, therefore, I went into Boston and saw Bishop Fitz- 
patrick (who is now, I hope, in the kingdom of heaven), he 
had little to do with me in the way of instruction. The Trinity 
and other fundamental doctrines I accepted readily on the authority 
of the Church. He was very anxious to argue with me about 
socialistic theories, on account cf my having been at Brook 
Farm and Fruitlands. But I told him I had no such difficulties 
as he supposed ; that I had only gone to these places in search 
of truth, not because I had formed any such theories as they 

* Reference is here made to the Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints. 



164 The Life of Father Hecker. 

generally held. He then asked me whether I would not prefer 
to be received into the Church in New York, where my friends 
were. I said I did not care ; if he would give me a letter I 
would present it. He gave me one to Bishop McCloskey, who 
was then coadjutor in this city." 

The reader may be interested in the terms in which the 
Catechism of the Council of Trent expresses the doctrine of the 
Communion of Saints. So far as that doctrine concerns the spir- 
itual side of man it is expounded in these words: 

*' For the unity of the Spirit, by which the Church is gov- 
erned, establishes among all her members a community of spirit- 
ual blessings, whereas the fruit of all the sacraments is common 
to all the faithful, and these sacraments, particularly baptism, the 
door, as it were, by which we are admitted into the Church, are 
so many connecting links which bind and unite them to Jesus 
Christ." 

That it extends to the mystical and miraculous gifts so dear 
to Father Hecker, was thus explained to him : 

" But the gifts which justify and endear us to God are not 
alone common: 'graces gratuitously granted,' such as knowl- 
edge, prophecy, the gifts of tongues and of miracles, and others 
of the same sort, are common also, and are granted even to the 
wicked; not, however, for their own, but for the general good; 
for the building up of the Church of God." 

That the doctrine is the foundation of a real though not a 
legal community of material goods, was evident to our young 
social reformer from the following : 

** In fine, every true Christian possesses nothing which he 
should not consider common to all others with himself, and 
should therefore be prepared promptly to relieve an indigent 
fellow -creature ; for he that is blessed with worldly goods, and 
sees his brother in want, and will not assist him, is at once con- 
victed of not having the love of God within him." 

Besides giving him a letter to Bishop McCloskey, Bishop 
Fitzpatrick also furnished the young catechumen with one to 
the president of Holy Cross College, an institution which had 



At the Door of the Church. 165 

been established at Worcester, Mass., in 1843 by Bishop Fen- 
wick, and presented by him to the Society of Jesus, of which he 
had been a member. The following letter was written by Isaac 
to his family after he had arrived there; his stay was not long: 

" Worcester, Mass., June, '44. — Respecting the purpose which 
leads me to New York I have scarcely a word to say. Quietly, 
without excitement, I come with an immovable determination to 
be joined to the Roman Catholic Church. There is a conviction 
which lies deeper than all thought or speech, which moves me 
with an irresistible influence to take this step, which arguments 
cannot reach, nor any visible power make to falter. Words are 
powerless against it and inexpressive of it ; to attempt to explain, 
or give to the intellectual mind the reasons why and wherefore, 
would be as impossible as to paint the heavens or to utter the 
eternal Word, the centre of all existence. It would be like ask- 
ing, * Wherefore is that which is ? ' the finite questioning the in- 
finite ; an impossibility. 

*'No man by his own wisdom can find out God; and it is 
only by the grace of Heaven that we come to, and by the heart 
perceive, the true Church of Jesus Christ. Grace teaches us to 
feel and know that which before was unfelt, unknown, invisible. 
Perfect submission to His love breaks open all seals, unlocks all 
mysteries, and unfolds all difficulties. 

"No external event of any kind or character induces me to 
take this step. If what does is delusion, what to name my 
former life I am at a loss to know. ... 

"The heads of the college here appear to be men of good 
character, devoted to the Church, innocent of the Protestant 
world of literature, philosophy, etc. The president is a very 
social, frank, warm-hearted man, of more extensive acquaintance 
in the world of letters." 




CHAPTER XVII. 

ACROSS THE THRESHOLD. 

FROM Worcester Isaac went on to New York, stopping on the 
way to make a brief visit to the Fourierite community in 
New Jersey, known as the North American Phalanx. He prob- 
ably had some personal acquaintances there whom he hoped to 
inoculate with his newly-found certitude. He reached home 
June 20, 1844, and five days later presented his letter to Bishop 
McCloskey. Concerning the acquaintance then begun, which, 
on the bishop's part, soon took the form of a discerning and 
wise direction, and eventually deepened into a life-long friend- 
ship, we shall have more to say hereafter. The diary chronicles 
their first meeting and gives the reason of the brief delay which 
ensued before Isaac was admitted to conditional baptism. The 
bulk of the entries made between this date and that of his for- 
mal reception into the Church, the first of August, contains 
spiritual doctrine of a kind so eminently characteristic of Father 
Hecker throughout his life that we continue to make extracts 
from it : 

** New York, Jime 25, 1844. — This morning I went to see 
Bishop McCloskey. I found him a man of fine character, mild 
disposition, and of a broader education than any of the Cath- 
olics I have had the pleasure of meeting. He was acquainted 
with Brownson's writings and Emerson's, and personally knew 
Mr. Channing, whom he had met at Rome. He loaned me 
some books on matters pertaining to the Church. He is to be 
gone for a fortnight from New York, and I am to wait until he 
comes back before I take any further steps toward being united 
with the Church." 

''July 5, 1844. — It is the duty of every man to do that 
which expresses the divine life which stirs within him, and to do 
nothing which is inconformable to it. So far as he falls short 
of this, so far he falls short of his duty, his perfection, and 
divine beauty. I think we may say with very great certainty 
tliat this is the only way to obtain happiness in this world and 
eternal felicity in the world to come. It is to this God calls us, 
but we — no, not truly we, but the Man of Sin -flatter ourselves, 

166 



Across the Threshold. 167 



as he did E\'c, that if wc follow him wo shall not die but be- 
come as gods. We, to-da)-, have the same temptation to over- 
come that Eve had. 

" Oh, how much greater God would have us be than we 
are, and we will not ! We must cast out the Man of Sin and 
submit to the Paradisiacal Man. This we are enabled to do, 
blessed be Heaven, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. 

*' Wliat are the temptations which hold men back from fol- 
lowing God and leading a divine life ? In one word, the World. 
Pride, love of praise, riches, self-indulgence, all that refers and 
looks to time instead of eternity, heaven, God. 

"We should encourage all that gives us an impulse heaven- 
ward, and deny all that tends to draw us down more into the 
body, sense, time. Man, alas ! is weak, powerless, and unable 
to perform any good deed which will raise him to God without 
the free, gift, the blessed grace of God the Holy Spirit. We all 
fail to act up to the divine grace which is given us. O Lord ! 
forgive my manifold transgressions, and empower me to be more 
and more obedient to thy Holy Spirit. My inward man desires 
to follow Thy Spirit, but the appetites of my members ever war 
against and often subdue him. Strengthen him, O Lord ! and 
enable him to govern my whole three-sphered nature. Send 
down Thy celestial love into my heart and quicken all my heav- 
enly powers. 

'* It is very true that no man can serve two masters. Be- 
tween God and Mammon there is no compromise, no mediator. 
Lord, make me fully sensible of this, and strengthen my resolu- 
tion to follow Thee. I do look to the Church of Christ for help. 
Oh, may I find in it that which the Apostles found in Jesus ! " 

We cannot refrain from reminding the reader of the immature 
age, and almost total lack of education — in the ordinary meaning 
of the term — of the man who wrote these lofty and inspiring 
sentences. He was ignorant of everything but the most rudimen- 
tary truths of Catholicity ; had never read an ascetic work ; had 
never spoken on ascetical subjects with Catholics; had never read 
the life of a saint ; and had no experience to draw from except 
his own. Yet mark the absolute certainty of his propositions 
and their uniform correctness. It should also be made known 
that these doctrines and sentiments, though written with the most 
evident haste, follow each other, page after page, without an 



1 68 The Life of Father Heckc7\ 

erasure or a correction. The truths which had dropped upon 
his mind were, indeed, rudimentary, but so well adapted was the 
soil to receive the seed that the fruit was instant and mature. 
Seldom has spontaneity so well approved itself by its utterances. 

" July 6. — The immediate effect of Christianity upon hu- 
manity has been to increase man's sensibility to the objects of 
the spiritual world. Poetry, music, the fine arts, are ennobling 
and spiritualizing only so far as they appeal to the nature of man 
divinized by the influence of the Divinity. Previous to the 
coming of Christ the tendency of the arts was, on the whole, 
rather to encourage licentiousness and sin than to elevate and 
refine human nature. The tendency of Christianity was to restore 
man to his primitive gracefulness, excellence, and beauty. Hence 
the expression of man in art — or, rather, of the divinity in man — 
became purer and more beautiful in its character. 

"In affirming Jesus to be the basis and life of modern civil- 
ization, nothing is detracted from the great and good men who 
preceded Him; nor" [is it denied] "that they have left traces 
of their genius upon modern society. 

" When we speak of Jesus as God, we affirm Him to be the 
Source of all inspiration, from whom all, ancient and modern, 
have derived their life, genius, goodness, and divine beauty. 

"Jesus quickened the spiritual powers of the soul which 
were deadened by the fall, and man again saw heaven, and 
angels descending and ascending to the throne of ineffable Love. 

" All the promises of Jesus refer to gifts of spiritual power 
over inanimate matter, the animal creation, and the Man of Sin. 

"Jesus came to give a spiritual life which would generate all 
knowledge and physical well-being. He came, not to teach a 
system of philosophy, however useful that might be; not to 
direct man how to procure food for his physical existence with 
the least possible exercise of physical strength, however necessary 
this might seem. But He came to give man a new nature 
which shall more than do all this ; which will not only secure 
his well-being here, but his eternal felicity hereafter. 

"As we rise above our time nature, and are united with our 
eternal nature, wc feci more and more our indebtedness to 
Christ. It was to this He called us in all His words, and now 
calls us in the Spirit. 

" So long as low appetites arc cherished, and selfish passions 



Across tJic Threshold. 169 



harbored, and vanity allowed a seat in our bosoms, so long will 
men be slaves to their stomachs, backs, and business. Every 
quickening of our sensibility toward love, heaven, equity, will 
lead us to change our circumstances so as to make them con- 
formable to our new inward life. 

" It is for us to be true to God, however unlike the world 
we may seem. It is in silence, in private, alone, that deeds can 
be done which shall outstrip those of the Alexanders and 
Napoleons in their eternal effects." 

'"July 7. — All that we contend for is that man should obey 
God, and co-operate in His work with his will and not against 
it. Interior submission to the Love Spirit is the answer to all 
questions concerning man's welfare, here and hereafter. What- 
ever a man is led to do in obedience to it is well done and 
godlike, though it lead him to offer up his only dear son. 

" We do say, with great emphasis, that nothing under heaven 
should prevent a man from following God. Unless a man can 
give up all and follow Christ, he is none of His.'' 

** Every true man is a genius. 

" All genius is religious. 

''The objective forms of genius are the expressions of the 
beautiful, the good, and the true ; in one word — God. 

" He is a genius in whom the beautiful, the good, and the 
true permanently inhabit. 

"The genius in every work of art is religious, whatever the 
subject may be. 

"We repeat that every man is called to give expression to 
the highest, best, divinest in him ; and to this, and to this only 
is he called. 

"We add that the Catholic Church is the medium of this 
divine life, and that she has nurtured and encouraged men of 
genius in her bosom as a fond mother. 

" We do not mean to say that the Church has converted 
men of ordinary stamp into geniuses, but that she has given the 
highest inspiration to the inborn capacity of genius, and so, to 
men thus gifted, has been the means by which they have be- 
come more than they could have been without her : so, also, 
with the most ordinary men. 

"We affirm that the influence of Protestantism upon the 



I/O The Life of Father Hecker 



business world has been to make it much more unchristian than 
it was in the middle ages under the influence of Catholicism." 

At this period, when Isaac Hecker's search had ceased, but 
when he had not yet entered into complete and formal posses- 
sion of the truth, we find him looking back at his past almost as 
if it were a thing in which his interest was but curious and imper- 
sonal. The thought of writing a history of it occurred to him, 
and he jotted down some brief notes, and made a partial col- 
lection of such letters and other memoranda, apart from the 
diary, as he found to have been preserved by his family. But 
this scheme was merely one of the occupations with which he be- 
guiled the necessary delay imposed on him by Bishop McClos- 
key's absence. One can easily believe that the plan he proposed 
to himself has deeply interested the present Avriter, who, though 
regretting that it was not followed out by Isaac Hecker himself, 
has yet been enabled by the diary and the letters to measurably 
fulfil its purpose. He divided it into five periods, and, with a 
reminiscence of Wilhelm Meister, called it his Wanderjahr : 

** The first should be named Youth, and give the ideal and 
the actual in youth. 

*'The second should be the struggle between the ideal and 
the actual. 

''The third should be the mastery and supremacy of the ideal 
over the actual and material. 

'' The fourth should give the absolute union of the ideal and 
the eternal-absolute in their unconditioned existence. 

*'The fifth should give the eventual one-ness of the ideal- 
absolute with humanity and nature. 

** Under these five heads I have in mind materials sufficient 
to make a volume, but lack the close application necessary to 
connect them. I do not say it would be readable when done. 
It would be the esoteric and exoteric history of my own life for 
ten years. 

" I would open the first chapter thus : Let men say what they 
will, God above us, the human soul, and all surrounding nature, 
are great realities, eternal, solemn, joyous facts of human expe- 
rience." 

In the fine passage that follows we have an anticipation of 
the prominent modern conception of Christianit}', as a develop- 



Across the Threshold. 171 



ing force in the history of man — closin*^- an epoch and introducing 
a new species ; or, as Father Heckcr would have saici in later 
years, raising man from his natural position as a creature of God 
to true sonship with llim through affihation with Jesus Christ. 
The thought, as it stands in the diary, is eminently characteris- 
tic of Isaac Heckcr, who always felt, in a measure beyond 
what is ordinary, his solidarity with all his kind, and a 
longing to keep in step with them on the line of their direct 
advance : 

''July \2. — We make no question that God gave to all nations, 
previous to the birth of Jesus Christ, His beloved and only Son, dis- 
pensations of light and love in their great men, and led them 
from time to time to the stage of civilization to which they arrived. 
The Christian affirms that God is the Parent of humanity, the 
Father of every human being.* It would be in direct contradiction 
to his faith to deny this. But Jesus Christ came to introduce a 
new life, whose light and love should so surpass all that had 
been before Him as to make it appear as darkness by contrast. 
This life makes no war against the good and true that already 
existed in men, but it embraces, includes, and fulfils it all, and 
then adds more than men had dared to dream before His coming. 
That Christianity is .of this high character, not only did its Author 
show by the example of His life and death, but it has shown 
itself to be so wherever it has come in contact with any of the 
older forms of religious faith and doctrine. It has exhibited a 
power that is superior to, and which overcomes, all that arrays 
itself against it. We do not deny ^hat Zoroaster, Pythagoras, 
Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Cato, etc., were good, great, and religious 
men, above the age in which they lived, and inspired by a life 
not only superior to that of their time but above that of a great 
part of Christendom, so-called. But we say that Christ gave to 
the world a life infinitely above theirs, and that, had they been His 
contemporaries, or ours, they would have been as far superior to 
their actual selves as the inspiration of Christianity is superior to 
that under which they lived." 

Although there is authority for saying that the business part- 
nership between Isaac Hecker and his brothers was not formally 
dissolved until he went away to Belgium in 1845, ^"^^ seems never 
to have resumed any active share in it after his return from Con- 



172 The Life of Father Hecker. 

cord. Now and again the old scruples about this apparent inac- 
tivity returned upon him, and we find him contracting his personal 
needs within a compass so narrow that his support shall be felt 
as the least possible burden. Thus he writes, on July 13, that 
his present state of suspension from all outward engagements can- 
not and should not be of long continuance. He adds: 

" It is a clear and bounden duty that every one should in 
some way or other compensate the world for that which he con- 
sumes from its store. But I do not see how I can do this con- 
sistently with the present state of my mind. To be sure I have 
contracted my wants as respects eating as far as seems possible to 
me ; somewhat in dress, but not as far as I should and can do. As 
for pleasures and many other causes of expenditure, I trust I am 
not immoderate. In this part of the world I do not see any pre- 
pared, congenial conditions. If I were in Europe, I should find 
in the Catholic Church institutions which I could enter for a 
time, until this period of my life would either fix itself 
permanently, or give place to another in which I could see my 
way more clearly. But here I am, and not in Europe. Some 
thoughts have arisen in my mind, and I will state them, as to 
Vv'hat may come at some future time within the range of the 
possible : 

" If I am joined to the Catholic Church, and there is such an 
institution in Europe, may I not go there and live for a time ? 
Ah ! is this possible ? 

" If we owned a spot of ground, I would be willing to go on 
it and engage as much of my time as possible in cultivating and 
improving it. 

"Lastly, I do not know what effect the advice and influence 
of the Catholic Church may have upon my mind, and do have a 
slight hope that I may find the exact remedy that I need in my 
union with her. 

" I feel the assurance that if I follow the Spirit of God, and 
place all my confidence in it, it will do for me what I dare not 
hope to do for myself^' 

A day or two later he jots down, casually as it were, one of 
those profound observations which are like pointers to his whole 

* "As some also of your own poets said : For we are also His offspring. Being, therefore, 
the offspring of God, we must not suppose the Divinity to be like unto gold or silver or stone, 
the graving of art and the device of man." (Acts xvii. 28, 29.) 



Across tJic TlircsJiold. 173 



career. Occurrin<j^ at tliis early period, when, as the reader 
may see hereafter, tlie <^erms of all his later thought and work- 
were beginning to unfold, they are like rifts in the darkness which 
seemed to himself to lie about his future, and show plainly to 
the student of his life how straight and secure his path was amidst 
it all. He had been counselling himself to patience and entire 
reliance upon God's providence while waiting the opportunity 
" to create or procure the circumstances " necessary to the expres- 
sion of his own individuality. He felt that this was the especial 
task to which all men were called. To use his own words : 

" It is for this we are created ; that we may give a new and indi- 
vidual expression of the absolute in our own peculiar character. 
As soon as the new is but the re-expression of the old, God 
ceases to live. Ever the mystery is revealed in each new birth. 
So must it be to eternity. The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating 
new forrris of expressing itself." 

In the next chapter we shall have occasion to give Father 
Hecker's choice of an epitaph for Dr. Brownson. We think that the 
sentences just quoted are worthy to be his own. 

In the middle of July Bishop McCloskey returned to New 
York, and Isaac waited upon him without delay. Their first long 
conversation made it plain to the bishop that the young man had 
very little need of further preliminary instruction, and it was 
settled that conditional baptism should be administered to him 
within a fortnight. That the nature of Isaac Hecker's vocation 
also revealed itself to this prudent adviser is also evident from 
this entry, made in the diary as soon as the visit was ended: 

" He said that my life would lead me to contemplation, and 
that in this country the Church was so situated as to require them 
all to be active. I did not speak further on this subject with 
him. He asked whether I felt like devoting myself to the order 
of the priesthood, and undergoing their discipline, self-denial, etc., 
and becoming a missionary. I answered that all I could say was 
that I wished to live the life given me, and felt like sacrificing all 
things to this ; but could not say that the priesthood would be 
the proper place for me. 

" I feel that if, for a certain length of time, and under the 
discipline of the Church, I could have the conditions for leading the 



174 The Life of Father Hecker. 



life of contemplation, it would be what the Spirit now demands. 
Whether I shall not be compelled back to this if I attempt to 
follow some other way, I am not perfectly sure. The bishop in- 
timated that in Europe there were brotherhoods congenial to the 
state of mind that I am in. If so, and I could remain there for 
a certain length of time, why should I not go ? I will inquire 
further about it when next I speak with the bishop. 

'• There is a college at Fordham where there is to be a com- 
mencement to-morrow, which the bishop invited me to go and 
see. Perhaps I shall find this place to be suitable, and may be 
led to examine and try it. The Lord knows all ; into His hands 
I resign myself" 

His impressions of the Catholic college at Fordham he does 
not record. The next entry in the diary is, as usual, taken up 
with the large topics which for the most part excluded parti- 
cular incidents from mention. What his strict abstinence from 
permitted pleasures, and the rigorous self-discipHne which he had 
so long practised, meant to himself, may be partly gathered 
from the extract we are about to give. He says he does not 
call such denial, 

*' in strict language, the denial of our true, God-created, im - 
mortal self, but the denial of that which is not myself, but 
which has usurped the place of my true, eternal, heavenly, 
Adamic being. It is the restoration of that defaced image of 
God to its primitive divine beauty, grace, and sweetness. We 
must feel and possess the love and light from above before we 
have the disposition and power to deny the body and the wis- 
dom of this world. If we have the Christ-spirit, we will fulfil 
the Christ- commands. 

" Thus was it with man prior to his spiritual death, his fall. 
He lived in and enjoyed God, and was in communion and 
society with angels, not knowing good and evil. His life was 
spontaneous ; his wisdom intuitive ; he was unconscious of it, even 
as we would be of light were there no darkness. We should see it 
and be recipients of all its blessings without knowing its exist- 
ence. But darkness came, and man knew. Alas ! in knowing 
he lost all that he possessed before. 

*' Jesus came to restore man to that eternal day from which 
Adam fell." 



Across the Threshold. 175 



About this time he mentions having spent a day in the 
woods with some friends, at Fort Lee ; it is the only allusion 
we find to any sort of recreation or companionship with others. 
He sat alone for an hour, he says, in a pleasant spot which 
overlooked the Hudson and the high Palisade rocks, and *' seemed 
to be in communion with the infinite invisible all around in all 
the deep avenues of the soul." 

Four days before his baptism comes this anticipation of it : 

*' New York, July 27, '44. — I have commenced acting. My 
union with the Catholic Church is my first real, true act. And 
it is no doubt the forerunner of many more — of an active life. 
Heretofore I did not see or feel in me the grounds upon which 
I could act with permanence and security. I now do ; and on 
this basis my future life will be built. What my actions may 
be, I care not. It was this deep eternal certainty within I did 
wish to feel, and I am now conscious that the lack of it was 
the reason for my inactivity. 

''With this guide I ask nd other, nor do I feel the need of 
the support of friends, or kindred, or the world. Alone it is 
sufficient for me, though it contradicts the advice of my friends 
and all my former life. It certainly seems to me absolute : if 
any error arises it will be from my disobedience." 

" July 30. — The inward voice becomes more and more audible. 
It says : ' I am — obey ! ' 

"The new clothes itself in new dress. 

*' What proof does a man give that he is if he does only 
what has been done ? 

'* Can a man repeat the past with genius ? 

" One true act opens the passage to ten more. 

" Man is lef^ to his own destiny ; religion but sanctifies it." 

When the day comes at last, the Sacrament itself gets only 
the briefest chronicle. The door seems but a door. Passing 
through it, he finds himself at home, and apparently without one 
quickening of the pulse, or any cessation of his desire to pene- 
trate all its secret chambers. The explanation of this is to be 
looked for in the presumption that his baptism in infancy had been 
valid. It was conferred by a Lutheran minister who must 
have been trained in Germany, and whose methodical adherence 



1/6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

to the proper form might be counted on. In the sight of God, 
doubtless, he had never since been outside the Church. He 
was Hke a child stolen from the cradle, but in whom racial and 
family traits had been superior to an uncongenial environment. 

^' Fi^iday, AitgiLst i, 1844, i P.M. — This morning we were 
baptized by Bishop McCloskey. To-morrow we attend the tri- 
bunal of confession." 

Then he mentions a curious fact which recalls a similar experi- 
ence of St. Catherine of Genoa : *' We know not why it is we 
feel an internal necessity of using the plural pronoun instead of 
the singular." 

But if conditional baptism left him silent, the Sacrament he 
certainly received the following day opened the flood-gates of 
his speech : 

''August 2. — Penance! joy! unbounded love! Sweet Jesus, 
Thy love is infinite ! Blessed faith ! sweet love 1 I possess an 
internal glory, a glowing flame of love ! Let my whole Hfe be 
one act of penance ! O dear Jesus, the life-giver ! Oh, what a 
sweet thing it is to be in the way of loveful grace ! Jesus, keep 
me near Thee ! Oh, how great a condescension, Jesus is my 
Friend! Oh! who has the conception of Jesus being his Friend? 

ancient faith, how dear, how good is God in giving us 
sinners thee ! Blessed is the grace of God that leadeth sinners 
to thee ! Oh, how thou hast comforted the soul ! It would turn 
from thee, but thou strengthenest it. The cup was bitter, but 
infinitely more sweet is the joy thou givest. My soul is clothed 
in brightness; its youth is restored. O blessed, ever-blessed, 
unfathomable, divine faith ! O faith of apostles, martyrs, con- 
fessors, and saints ! Holy Mother of Jesus, thou art my mother. 

1 feel in my heart thy tender love. O holy Mother, thou hast 
beheld me ! Bless me, Virgin Mother of Jesus ! " 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

NEW INFLUENCES. 

BISHOP McCLOSKEY, afterwards the first American Cardinal, 
was coadjutor to Bishop Hughes from 1844 to 1847. He was 
living at the old Cathedral when Isaac Hecker first called upon 
him. He was still a young man, less than ten years separating 
him from the youthful catechumen. In temperament they were 
very different. The bishop, a man of routine in method and of 
no original views of principles, was so, nevertheless, by mental 
predisposition rather than by positive choice. He was a man of 
finished education ; a dignified speaker, whose words read as im- 
pressively as they sounded. Although the two men were so un- 
like, the bishop could, at least after brief hesitation, fully appre- 
ciate Isaac Hecker ; nay, could love him, could further his plans, 
and stand by him in his difficulties. Before we are done with 
this Life, the reader will see this more in detail. 

Nor was Bishop McCloskey without light as a judge in 
spiritual matters. By nature calm and self- poised, and readily 
obedient to reason, the grace of his high ofiice, his wide knowl- 
edge of men, his extensive reading, were doubtless supplemented 
by a special infusion of heavenly wisdom, due to his upright 
purpose and his spotless life. Though not timid, he was not 
conspicuous for courage ; his refuge in difficulty was a high 
order of prudence, never cowardice ; nor did he err either by 
precipitancy, by cruelty, or by rigidity of adherence to abstract 
rules of law. Father Hecker knew him thoroughly well, and 
admired him ; more, he profited by his guidance, and that nqt 
only at this earliest period of their intercourse. It was by him 
that Isaac Hecker's vocation was, though not revealed, yet most 
wisely directed. Brownson told the young man that he ought 
to devote himself to the Germans in this country ; Bishop 
Hughes advised him to go to St. Sulpice and study for the 
secular priesthood ; Bishop McCloskey told him to become a 
rehgious. 

Hitherto Isaac Hecker's environment had been entirely non- 
CathoHc; the ebbing and flowing of a sea of doubt and inquiry 
upon which floated small boats and rafts which had been cast 
ofif from the good ship of Christ. Now that he was on board 
the ship itself, he found its crew and passengers sailing straight on 



178 The Life of Father Hecker. 

toward their destined haven, paying small regard, as a rule, to 
the small craft and the shipwrecked sailors tossing on the wild 
waves around them, and only surprised when one or another 
hailed their vessel and asked to be taken on board. Nor did 
the attitude of non- Catholics, taking them generally, invite any- 
thing else. Isaac Hecker, passing into the Church, not only 
came into contact with its members, but was to be for some 
years exclusively in their company. But, though carried beyond 
the Ripleys, the Alcotts, the Lanes, the Emersons, and beyond 
the theories they in some sort stand for and represent, he had 
learned them and their lesson, and never lost his aptitude for 
returning to their company with a Catholic message. His fare- 
well to that class did not involve loss of affectionate interest, for 
in mind he continually reverted to them. He knew that their 
peculiar traits were significant of the most imperative invitation 
of Providence to missionary work. He thought it was to that 
class, or, rather, to the multitude to whom they were prophets, 
that the exponent of Catholicity should first address himself. 
They possessed the highest activity of the natural faculties; 
they were all but the only class of Americans who loved truth 
for its own sake, that trait which is the peculiarity of the Cath- 
olic mind, and the first requisite for real conversion. 

It may have been the latent strength of this conviction that, 
within a year after his reception into the Church, permanently af- 
fected the influence which Brownson had so long exerted over him. 
It ceased now to be in any sense controlling, and at no future time 
regained force enough to be directive. They found the Church 
together, went together into its vestibule, and were received nearly 
at the same time. And then the wide liberties of a universal re- 
ligion gave ample scope and large suggestion for the accentuation 
and development of their native dififerences. Brownson was a 
pubhcist and remained so ; Isaac Hecker was a mystic and re- 
mained so. To the mysticism of the latter was added an ex- 
ternal apostolate ; the public activity of the former was, indeed, 
apostolic, but upon a field not only different from any he would 
himself have spontaneously chosen, but quite unlike. Our reader 
already knows how grievous a loss to the pubHc exposition of 
the Church in America this deflection of Brownson's g-enius from 
its true direction seemed to Father Hecker. He never ceased to 
deplore it as a needless calamity, overruled in great measure, 
indeed, by the good Providence of God, but not wholly repaired. 



New Influences. 179 



Father Hecker's affection for Dr. Brownson never wavered, 
and his gratitude towards him was only deepened and made more 
efficacious with the lapse of time and the growth of his own 
spiritual experience. If they did not always agree, either in 
principles or in questions of policy, they always loved each 
other. The memoranda furnish an interesting proof of this abid- 
ing affection on the part of Father Hecker. He was asked : 

" Don't you think we might have a memorial tablet to Dr. 
Brownson in our church?" 

'* Yes ! Of all the men I ever knew, he had most influence 
over me " 

"■ When you were in early life ? " 

'* Yes, of course. Oh ! in after life no man has had influence 
with me, but only God." 

This meant, of course, the influence of master upon disciple, and 
not that of lawful authority or of fraternal love, to both of which 
Father Hecker was ever very sensitive. 

Speaking at another time of Brownson, he quoted this sen- 
tence from The Convert as so perfect an epitome of the man 
that it should be put on his monument : 

" I had one principle, and only one, to which, since throwing 
up Universalism, I had been faithful ; a principle to which I had, 
perhaps, made some sacrifices — that of following my own honest 
convictions whithersoever they should lead me." 

And just here is found one of those points of essential differ- 
ence which it is interesting to note between these two men, so 
closely drawn together by Divine Providence at one period, and 
in such a relation that to the elder the function of guidance 
seemed to have been appointed. In unswerving fidelity to con- 
viction they were on a par, but in native clearness of vision and 
instinctive aversion from error they were far less closely matched. 
Brownson in early life had tried, accepted, and preached various 
forms of aberration from true doctrine. One might say of him, 
that, having found himself outside the highway at his start, he 
gathered accretions from hedge and ditch as he struggled toward 
the true road, and went through an after process of sloughing 
them one by one. Perhaps that process ended in making him 
over-timid. It was otherwise with Isaac Hecker. He, too, had 
stopped to consider many doctrines which purported to be true ; 
more than that, he had recognized in each the modicum of truth 



i8o The Life of Father Heckei^ 

which it possessed. But the falsity with which this was over- 
loaded was powerful enough to repel him, in spite of the truth he 
knew to be contained in it. He carried in himself the touchstone 
to which all that was akin to it beyond him responded of neces- 
sity. The Light which lights every man who comes into the 
world had not only never been darkened in him by sinful 
courses, but it seemed to burn with a crystal clearness which 
threw up into hideous and repellant proportions all that was 
offensive to it. Many voices had called him from without, but he 
had refused obedience unto any. He never submitted until his 
submission was full and not to be withdrawn. So, once in the 
Church, and enjoying her divine guarantee of external authority, 
he had few if any disquieting recollections of error to breed dis- 
trust of the light that shone within him. His soul was of that 
order to which truth speaks authoritatively and at first hand ; of 
that soil from which institutions which are to stand spring by a 
true process of development, because it is the soil which first re- 
ceived their germs. Always it is the soul of man which is in- 
spired, the mind of man that is enlightened. Then the teaching 
comes as record of the fact and the doctrine ; then the institu- 
tion soHdifies about them, a perpetual witness that to many men 
and ages of men the same message has been handed dov/n by 
its first recipients and has produced in them its proper results. 
The race of such souls has not died out in the Christian Church. 
The one truth, spoken once for all by the Incarnate Word, takes 
on for them new aspects and new tones. They are the pioneers 
of great movements. Nurtured in the Church, their ardor burns 
away mere conventionalities ; born outside the Church, the light 
she carries is a beacon, and the voice she utters is felt as that of 
the true Mother. To adapt once more a pregnant sentence from 
young Hecker, of the truth of which he was himself an example : 
"It is God in them which believes in God." 

But to return to Brownson. An entry in the journal, made 
nearly a year later, sums up the total impression which Brown- 
son had made upon his young disciple : 

'' Jime 22, 1845. — O. A. B. is here. He arrived this morn- 
ing. Though he is a friend to me, and the most critical 
periods of my experience have been known to him, and he has 
frequently given me advice and sympathy, yet lie never moves 



New Influences. i8i 



my heart. He has been of inestimable use to me in my intel- 
lectual development. He is, too, a man of heart. But he is so 
strong, and so intellectually active, that all his energy is con- 
sumed in thought. He is an intellectual athlete. He thinks for 
a dozen men. He does not take time to realize in heart for 
himself No man reads or thinks more than he. But he is 
greater as a writer than as a person. There are men who never 
wrote a line, but whose influence is deeper and more extensive 
than that of others who have written heavy tomes. 

'* It is too late for Brownson to give himself to contempla- 
tion and interior recollection. He is a controversialist ; a doc- 
tor. The last he will be before long. Some have wondered 
why I should have contracted such a friendship for one whom 
they imagine to be so harsh and dictatorial. I have not felt 
this. His presence does not change me ; nor do I find myself 
where I- was not after having met him. He has not the tem- 
perament of a genius, but that of a rhetorician and declaimer. 
He arrives at his truths by a regular and consecutive system 
of logic. His mind is of a historical more than of a poetical 
mould. 

" As a man, I have never known one so conscientious and 
self-sacrificing. This is natural to him. His love of right is su- 
preme, and the thing he detests most is bad logic. It makes 
him peevish and often riles his temper. He defeats, but will 
never convince an opponent. This is bad. No one loves to 
break a lance with hJm, because he cuts such ungentlemanly 
gashes. He is strong, and he knows it. There is more of the 
Indian chief than of the Christian knight in his composition. But 
he has something of both, though nothing of the modern scholar, 
so called. His art is logic, but he never aims at art. By nature 
he is a most genuine and true man ; none so much so. By no 

means E " [Emerson ?] " who ever prates about this thing. 

If he attempts embellishment, you see at once it is borrowed ; it 
is not in his nature. There is a pure and genuine vein of 
poetry running through him, but it is not sufficient to tincture 
the whole flow of his life. He is a man of the thirteenth or 
fourteenth century rather than of the nineteenth. He is an 
anomaly among its scholars, writers, and divines. He is not 
thorough on any one subject though at home on all. What a 
finished collegiate education would have done for him I am 
bafiled to conjecture. He is genuine, and I love him for that; 



1 82 The Life of Father Hecker 



it is the crown of all virtues. But I must stop. I only intended 
to mention that he is here." 

The reader may well suppose that Father Hecker fully ap- 
preciated Brownson's literary genius. The English language in 
his grasp was a weapon to slay and a talisman to raise to life. 
Never was argumentation made more delightful reading; never 
did a master instruct more exclusively by the aid of his disci- 
ple's highest faculties than did Brownson. Habituated his whole 
life long to the ardent study of the greatest topics of the human 
understanding, he was able to teach all, as he had taught young 
Hecker, how to think, discern, judge, penetrate, decide about them 
with matchless power ; and he clothes his conclusions in lan- 
guage as adequate to express them as human language well can be. 
Clearness, precision, force, purity, vividness, loftiness are terms 
applicable to Dr. Brownson's literary style. It may be that the 
general reading public will not study his works merely for the 
sake of his literary merits ; the pleasures of the imagination 
and of narrative are not to be found in Dr. Brownson. But he 
certainly will win his way to the suffrages of the higher class 
of students of fine writing. And let one have any shadow of 
interest in the great questions he treats, and every page dis- 
plays a style which is the rarest of literary gifts. The very fact 
that his writing is untinted by those lesser beauties which catch 
the eye but to impede its deepest glances, is in itself an ex- 
cellence all the greater in proportion to the gravity of his topics. 
Absolutely free from the least obscurity, his diction is a mag- 
netic medium uniting the master's personality, the disciple's un- 
derstanding, and the essence of the subject under consideration. 
Carainal Newman, some may believe, possessed this supreme 
rhetoric in perhaps even a higher degree than Brownson, but so 
much can be said of few other writers of English prose. George 
Ripley, whom Father Hecker deemed the best judge of liter- 
ature in our country or elsewhere, assured him that there were 
passages in Dr. Brownson which could not be surpassed in the 
whole range of English literature. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

YEARNINGS AFTER CONTEMPLATION. 

** /^OULD I but give up all my time to contemplation, study, 
V^ reading, and reflection !" 

Upon this aspiration as a background the whole matter of 
Isaac Hecker's vocation must be considered. In substance we 
have met with it very frequently already ; in the shape just given 
it confronts us on the first page of the new diary begun a few 
days before his baptism. And as our reader accompanies us 
through the records he made during the year that still elapsed 
before he entered the Redemptorist Order, nothing, we think, 
will become more evident than that he was called to something 
beyond adhesion to the Church, the worthy reception of the sacra- 
ments, or even the ordinary sacerdotal state. 

To make this still plainer at the start, it may be useful to de- 
scribe briefly the special grounds whereon Isaac Hecker fought 
his life-long battles. These were, first : The validity of those natu- 
ral aspirations which are called religious, and which embrace the 
veracity of reason in its essential affirmations. Second : Whether 
man be by nature guileless or totally depraved : Third, Whether 
religion be or be not intrinsically and primarily an elevating influ- 
ence whose end is to raise men to real union with God. 

To many inquirers after the true religion such preliminary 
doubts have been already settled, either by natural bent of mind 
or docility to previous training; and they pass on to consider 
apostolical succession, the primacy of Peter, the nature and num- 
ber of the sacraments, and other matters wherein heresy errs by 
denial or by defect. But to Isaac Hecker all such points as these 
were, in a sense, subsidiary. He had asked admission into the 
Church because he found it to be the only teaching society on 
earth whose doctrines gave complete and adequate satisfaction to 
that fundamental craving of his nature which prompted his ques- 
tions. She accredited herself to him as fully by that fact as she 
must have done to many a philosophic pagan among those who 
were the first disciples to the new faith preached by St. John or 
St. Paul. All else he accepted with an implicit, child-like confi- 
dence not different from that which moves the loyal descendant 
of ages of Catholic ancestors. It was clear to him that these 
accompanying doctrines and institutions must have been enfolded 



184 The Life of Father Hecker. 



within the original germ, and must be received on the same au- 
thority, not by an analytic process and on their merits, one by 
one. 

What he wanted was, in the first place, sustenance for what he 
invariably calls ''the life" given him ; and next, light to see in what 
way he was to put to use the strength so gained. The first effect 
of the sacraments was what one might call the natural one of 
making more visible the shadows which enveloped his path, as well 
as stimulating his instinctive efforts to pierce through them. After 
the rapturous joy which succeeded confession and absolution, a 
period of desolation and dryness heavier than he hjid ever known 
at once set in. Perhaps he had expected the very reverse of this. 
At all events, it was not many days before it drew from him the 
complaint that in leaving Concord he had also left behind him 
the great interior sweetness which had buoyed him up. On 
August 1 1 he writes : 

" How hard it has been for me to go through with all these 
solemn mysteries and ceremonies without experiencing any of those 
great delights which I have [before] felt. Why is this ? Is it to 
try my faith ? O Lord ! how long shall I be tried in this season 
of desolation? Are these [delights] never to return? Have 
I acted unworthily ? What shall I do to receive these blessings 
again ? ' ' 

Then he resolves to make a novena, fasting the while on 
bread and water, to entreat their renewal. But at once a better 
mood sets in and he adds: 

''The highest state of perfection is to be content to be noth- 
ing. Lord, give me strength not to ask of Thee anything that 
is pleasant to me. I renounce what I have just asked for, and 
will try to do all without the hope of recompense. If Thou triest 
my soul, let it not go until it has paid the uttermost farthing." 

''August 15, 1844. — To-day is the holyday of the Assump- 
tion of the dear. Blessed Mary, Mother of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus. Oh ! may I be found worthy of her regard 
and love." 

" He that has not learned the bitterness of the drops of woe 



Yearnings after Contemplation. 185 

has not learned to live. One hour of deep agony teaches man 
more love and wisdom than a whole long life of happiness. . . 
** In many faces I see passing through the crowded streets 
there seems a veiled beauty, an angel quickening me with purer 
life as I go by them in anxious haste. Do we not see the 
hidden worth, glory, and beauty of others as our own becomes 
revealed to us ? Would the Son of God have been needed to 
ransom man if he were not of incomparable value ? " 

One of the dreams that at this time occupied Isaac's mind 
was that of undertaking a pilgrimage to Rome. He wrote to Henry 
Thoreau, proposing that they should go in company, and felt 
regret when his invitation was not accepted. His notion was to 
" work, beg, and travel on foot, so far as land goes, to Rome. 
I know of no pleasanter, better way, both for soul and body, 
than to make such a pilgrimage in the old, middle-age fashion ; 
to suffer hunger, storm, cold, heat — all that can affect the body 
of flesh. If we receive hard usage, so much the better will 
it be for us. Why thump one's own flesh here ? Let it be done 
for us by others, our soul, meanwhile, looking at higher ob- 
jects. ... I feel that I have the stuff to do it in me. I 
would love to work and beg my way to Rome if it cost me ten 
or fifteen years of my life." 

Thoreau replied to this proposal that such a tour had been 
one of his own early dreams, but that he had outlived it. He 
had now ''retired from all external activity in disgust, and his 
life was more Brahminical, Artesian- well, Inner-Temple Hke." So 
the scheme, which had secured Bishop McCloskey's approbation, 
although he had forcibly represented to young Hecker that to go 
absolutely destitute of money, and dependent for all things upon 
alms, would be impossible, was presently shelved. It was but 
one of the diversions with which certain souls, not yet enHghtened 
as to their true course, nor arrived at the abandonment of them- 
selves to Divine Providence, are amused. Their inactivity seems 
idleness to them, and they mistake the restless impulse which 
bids them be up and doing for the voice of conscience or the 
inspiration of heavenly wisdom ; but it is neither. Sometimes it 
is a superfluity of natural energy seeking an outlet ; sometimes 
it i') the result of the strain placed upon nature by a very pow- 
erf <1 influx of grace. The infusion of power from above is often 
gr atly in excess of the light necessary for guidance in its use. 



1 86 The Life of Father Hecker. 

This last rarely comes entirely from the inner touch of the Holy 
Spirit In the lives of the Fathers of the Desert we read of a cer- 
tain young brother, Ptolemy, who went astray from sound 
spirituality. When admonished he asserted that he need learn 
the spiritual life from none save the Holy Ghost, of whose in- 
spirations any man of good will could be certain. He was told 
by the old monks that the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and 
the understanding of the same are two distinct things, and that 
this understanding is disclosed only to him whose will has been 
purified by the practice of obedience and humility. In truth, it 
is rarely that the inner voice of God does not call for an external 
interpreter, which, if it does no more than furnish a divinely au- 
thorized test and criterion, is none the less necessary. Moreover, 
the inner voice seldom provides ways and means for its own pur- 
poses. Father Hecker was ever a strenuous defender of this 
inner and outer unity of the Divine guidance, and his vocation 
was an illustration of it. However masterful the inner voice of 
God which called him away from the world, h^ was helpless till 
he heard its tones harmonized by the counsel of Bishop Mc- 
Closkey. When he found that even with this backing secured, 
the external obstacles to his plan proved invincible, he was once 
more nonplussed. *' If not this, what ? " he asks himself 

*' I feel deeply and strongly that the circle of family happi- 
ness is not sufficient for my nature, but what I can profitably 
do outside of this I have not the ability to say. 

"That our real wishes are presentiments of our capabilities is a 
very true proverb, no doubt; but are we not most ignorant of 
what these are ? It seems as though we are all unconsciously 
educated for unknown ends and purposes. 

'' I look upon myself as belonging to that class of decidedly 
unfortunate beings who have no marked talent for any particu- 
lar pursuit. The words talent, genius, have for me no applica- 
tion whatever. I stand on the confines of both worlds, not feel- 
ing the necessity nor having the true valor to decide for either 
sphere. 

*' O heaven ! why was this deep, ever-burning life given me, 
unless it be that I might be slowly and painfully consumed by 
it ? All greatness is in the actor, not in the act. He whom 
God has blessed with an end in life, can earnestly labor to 
accomplish that end. But alas for that poor mortal whose ex- 



Yearnings afte7' Contemplation. 187 

istence only serves to fill up space in the world ! How excru- 
ciating to him to be conscious of this ! O Prometheus ! 

*' Simply to be what God would have us, is to be greater than 
to have the applause of the whole world otherwise. All such 
statements as this are necessarily one-sided. Because there are 
always good and virtuous men in the world whose approbation 
is that of God. 

'' There is an instinct in man which draws him to danger, as 
in battle-fields ; as there is also in the fly, drawing it to the 
flame of Hght. It is the desire of the spirit within, seeking for 
release. ' 

''August 20, 1844. — Scarce do I know what to say of myself. 
If I accuse myself by the light given me, it would lead me to leave 
all around me. My conscience thus accuses me. And in par- 
taking of worldly things and going into the company around 
me, my interior self has no pleasure, and I feel afterwards that 
the labor and time have been misspent. How to hve a life 
which shall be conformable to the life within and not separate 
from the persons and circumstauces around me, I cannot con- 
ceive. I am now like one who tastes a little of this and then 
a little of that dish, while his time is wasted and his mind dis- 
tracted from that pure enjoyment which is a foretaste of the bliss 
of the angels. I feel my primitive instincts and unvitiated tastes 
daily becoming more sensible to inspirations from above, from the 
invisible. The ideal world, the soul world, the kingdom of 
heaven within, I feel as if I were more a friend and citizen of 
O Lord ! my heart would break forth in praise of the riches of 
the life given within ! It seems that in this that we enjoy all, know 
all, and possess all. If we have Thee, O Lord ! if Thou hast 
taken up Thy dwelling in us, we enjoy heaven within and para- 
dise without !" 

'' Atigust 21, 1844. — The object of education should be to 
place each individual mind in vital union with the One Univer- 
sal Educator. . 

"The only pleasure for man is his union with a priori prin- 
ciples." 

''August 23, 1844. — If the animal passions are indulged, of 
course you must pay the cost. If you get a large family of 



1 88 The Life of Father Hecker. 

children about you, and please your animal appetites with all 
sorts of luxury, and indulge your pride in all the foolish fashions 
of show, do not wonder that it cost all your time to uphold 
such an expensive life. This is necessary, unless you cheat some 
one else out of the hard-earned value of his labor. I cannot 
conceive how a Christian, under the present arrangements, can 
become wealthy without violating repeatedly the precepts of his 
reHgion. ..." 

" Where shall we find God ? Within. 

** How shall we hear the voices of angels ? Listen with the 
inward ear. 

"When are we with God? When we are no more with 
ourselves. 

" When do we hear the music of heaven ? When we are 
entirely silent. 

*' What is the effect of sin ? Confusion. 

"■ Where does God dwell ? In silence. 

"■ Who loves God ? He who knows nothing and loves noth- 
ing of himself 

" What is prayer ? The breath of silence. 

'' What is love ? The motion of the pure will. 

" What is light ? The shadow of love. 

" What is force ? The power of love. 

" Where does God dwell ? Where there is peace. 

" Who is most like God ? He who knows he is the least 
like Him. 

*' What is the innermost of all ? Stillness. 

"Who is the purest? He who is most beyond temptation. 

" What is the personality of man ? The absolute negation of 
God. 

" What is God ? The absolute affirmation in man. 

"What is it to know? It is to be ignorant. 

"What should we desire? Not to desire. 

"What is the most positive answer? Silence. 

"What is the truest? That which cannot be proven." 

''August 25, 1844. — In silence, suffering without murmuring. 
An eternal thirst, enduring without being quenched. Infinite 
longings without being met. Heart ever burning, never re- 
freshed. Void within and mystery all around. Ever escaping 



Yeariiings after Contemplation. 189 

that which we would reach. Tortured incessantly without relief. 
Alone — bereft of God, angels, men — all. Hopes gone, fears van- 
ished, and love dead within. These, and more than these, must 
man suffer." 

''August 28, 1844. — Is it not because I have been too much 
engaged in reading and paid too little attention to the centre 
that I have lost myself, as it were ? My position here distracts 
my attention and I lose the delight, intimate knowledge, and 
sweet consciousness of my interior life. How can this be reme- 
died ? I am constantly called off to matters in which I have no 
relish; and if I retreat for a short time, they rest on me like a 
load, so that I cannot call myself free at any moment. I see 
the case as it stands, and feel I am losing my interior life from 
the false position in which I am placed. 

**The human ties and the material conditions in which I am 
should unquestionably be sacrificed tip the divine interior rela- 
tion to the One, the Love-Spirit, which, alas ! I have so sensibly 
felt. Can a man live in the world and follow Christ ? I know 
not; but, as for me, I find it impossible. I feel more and more 
the necessity of leaving the society and the distracting cares of a 
city business for a silent and peaceful retreat, to the end that I 
may restore the life I fear I am losing. Our natural in- 
terests should be subject to our human ties ; our human ties 
to our spiritual relations ; and who is he who brings all these 
into divine harmony ? 

"■ How shall I make the sacrifice which shall accomplish the 
sole end I have, and should have, in view ? Thrice have I left 
home for this purpose, and each time have returned unavoidably 
— so, at least, it seems to me. Once more, I trust, will prove a 
permanent and immovable trial." 

To some, a most striking incidental proof of his inaptitude 
for the ordinary layman's life, is found in the subjoined extract 
from the memoranda. Speaking of this period, Father Hecker 
said : 

" Some time after my reception into the Church, I went to 
Bishop McCloskey and told him I had scruples against rent- 
ing a seat in the Cathedral in Mott Street. ' If I do,' I said, 
*I shall feel sore at the thought that I have set apart for me in 
the house of God a seat which a poor man cannot use.' I told 



190 The Life of Father Hecker, 

him that for this reason I had knelt down near the doorway, 
among the crowd of. transient poor people. Oh, how he eased 
my spirit by sympathizing with my sentiment, and satisfied me 
by declaring that the renting of pews was only from necessity, 
and he wished we could get along without it." 

His relations with some of his former friends at Brook Farm 
still continued, though in a somewhat attenuated condition. 
From a long and appreciative letter sent him by Burrill Curtis, 
we make an extract, followed by Isaac's comments on it: 

'^ Octobei^ 13, 1844. — Your preparedness for any fate has been 
one of the chief attractions of your character to me, for I be - 
lieve it is deeper than a mere state of mind. But, for all that, 
your restlessness is uppermost just now ; not as a contradictory 
element, for it is not ; but as a discovering power." 

Isaac's journal, just at this time, was chiefly devoted to what 
he calls **the many smaller, venial sins which beset my path and 
keep me down to earth. Also to prescribe such remedies as 
may seem to me best for these thorns in the flesh." On Octo- 
ber 26 he notes that he has received the letter just quoted, and 
remarks : 

'' It showed more regard for me than I thought he had. The 
truth is, I do not feel myself worthy to be the friend of any 
one, and would pass my life in being a friend to all, without 
recognizing their friendship towards me. 

"To-day I have felt more humanly tender than ever. The 

past has come up before me with much emotion. 

has been much in my thoughts. 

" I have experienced those unnatural feelings which 1 have 
felt heretofore. I feel that the spirit world is near and glimmer- 
ing all around me. The nervous shocks I have been subject to, 
but which I have not experienced for some time back, recurred 
this evening. I am known to spirits, or else I apprehend 
them." 

He had taken up Latin and Greek again, and seems to have 
entered a class of young men under the tutorship of a Mr. 
Owen. The entry just quoted from goes on as follows : 

" I do not devote as much time to study as I should, or as 



Yearjiings after Cont£inplatio7i. 191 

I might. I fear I shall never make anything- of my studies. I 
do not endeavor with all my might. This study has thrown me 
into another sphere. I like it not. I feel apprehensive of some- 
thing, of somewhat. Ten years from now will fix my destiny, if 
I have any."' 

Much good as he, continued to receive from the sacrament of 
penance, he found a not altogether usual difficult}' in pre- 
paring for ii-. Perhaps it was in the counsel he received 
there that he got courage to gird himself for his renewed attack 
upon the languages, for his delinquencies in this respect have 
the air of bein^ the most tangible of the matters on his con- 

o o 

science. 

" I must prepare for confession this week." he writes on 
November 5, 1844. " Oh I would that I could accuse myself as 
I should. _ Man is not what he should be so long as he is not an 
angel. Oh, dear God I give me Thy aid, and help me in my 
weaknesses. What sins can I accuse myself of now ? First — oh, 
Love ! give me Hght to accuse myself — to see my sins. TJiis is 
my greatest sin ; that I cannot accuse myself and am so luicked. 

" Each day I omit a hundred duties that I should not. 
Lord, give me Thy Spirit, that I may be humble, meek, and 
sweet in all my walk and conversation. Fill my heart with 
Thy love."' 

In a little while he found himself able to study more diligently, 
and though he continually regrets the inroad this makes upon 
his interior life, he seems not only to have persevered, but to 
have taken considerable interest and an active part in the de- 
bates got up at regular intervals by the class he had joined. 
He notes that he has serious doubts whether it will be wise for 
him to express his full mind on some of the subjects brought up. 
His fellow-pupils were all Protestants, and some of them well- 
informed and talented young men. His views would be new to 
them, and so would many of his authorities for his statements of 
fact, and he thought it not unlikely that a commotion might 
sometimes be raised which would not at all commend itself to the 
teacher of the institution. He concluded, however, to throw 
prudence to the winds, and on controverted points to express 
his sentiments freely and frankly. There were some animated 
discussions, no doubt. 



192 The Life of Father Hecker. 



He was endeavoring at this time to retrench his hours of 
sleep to the narrowest dimensions compatible with health, and 
found it, we may note, the most difficult of his austerities. In 
other respects they remained severe, as this entry may witness : 

''November 27, 1844. — I am sorely perplexed what to eat. 
Nuts, apples, and bread seem not a diet wholly suitable, and 
what to add I know not. Potatoes are not good; I think they 
were the cause of my illness last week. I do not wish to par- 
take of anything that comes even remotely from an animal. 
Cooking, also, I wish, as far as possible, to dispense with. / 
zvould I could dispense with the whole digestive apparatus I 
Cheese, butter, eggs, milk, are for many reasons not a part of 
my diet." 

The balance of this fourth volume of his diary, begun Sep- 
tember 9, 1844, and ended January 2, 1845, is mainly occupied 
with addresses to his guardian angel. He was, as those who 
knew him will remember, always extremely devout to the 
angelic choirs. On his birthday this year he writes as follows : 

''December 18, 1844. — Let me look back for a few moments 
and see where I stood last year this time (an incomprehensible 
length), and where I now stand. Then my path was dim, un- 
fixed, unsettled. Then I was not so disentangled from the body 
and its desires as, I hope in God, I now am. In all I feel a 
consciousness that since then I have spiritually grown — been 
transformed. For my present I cannot speak. For my future, 
it seems I dare not speak. 

" Dreams of the future ! Exalted visions ! Beautiful, unspeak- 
able hopes ! Deep, inarticulate longings that fill the conscious 
soul ! Ah ! so sweet, so harmonious, so delightful, like an angel, 
like the bride of the pure and bright soul adorned for the nuptials, 
do I see the future beckoning me with a clear, transparent smile 
onward to her presence. ' Ah ! ' rny soul would say, * we will 
meet, for I am in thy presence, an^ faithful in God may heaven 
grant me to be.' The beauty, the grace, the love, the sweetness that 
attract me, are beyond all comparison. Ah ! thou eternal, ever- 
blooming virgin, the Future, shall I ever embrace thee ? Shall 
I ever see thee nearer to my heart ? I look at myself and I am 
bowed down low in grief; but when I cast my eyes up to thee, 
in seeing thee I am lost. The grace and beauty I see in thee 



Yearnings after Contemplation. 193 

passes into my soul, and I am all that thou art. I am then 
wedded to thee, and I would that it were an eternal union. 
But ah ! my eyes, when turned upon myself, lose all sight of thee, 
and meet nothing but my own spots and blemishes. How canst 
thou love me ? I say ; and for thy pure love I am melted into 
thee as one." 

He continues : 

*' Lord, let me speak of my many and grievous sins ; but oh ! 
when I would do so, my mouth speaks nothing forth but Thy 
praises. 

'* I would offer my whole soul afresh to all that is, for the 
sake of the love of God. . . . Lord, I am Thine, for Thou 
dost teach me this by Thy unutterable, ever-present love." 

''January 3. — Last Saturday my confessor was not at home 
when I called. I have waited until this morning, the Saturday 
following. It is sad to me to wait to partake of the Blessed 
Sacrament. How much joy, love, and sweetness it is to the soul! 
I feel my soul to glow again with renewed love v/hen I have 
partaken of the blessed communion of Christ. This is my spiritual 
food. It is the goodness, mercy, and love of God which keeps 
me from sadness." 




CHAPTER XX. 

FROM NEW YORK TO ST. TROND. 

ISAAC HECKER'S zeal for social reform lent force to his 
strictly personal cravings for a more religious life ; he longed 
for wider scope than individual effort could possibly bestow, and 
also for a supernatural point of vantage. " If we would do hu- 
manity any good," he writes in his diary while considering his 
vocation, ** we must act from grounds higher than humanity ; our 
standpoint must be above the race, otherwise how can we act upon 
humanity?" He also speaks of the fundamental necessity of ''an 
impulse of divine love " actuating the reformer of social evils. 
He addresses himself thus : '* If thou wouldst move the race to 
greater good and higher virtue, lose thyself in the Universal. Be 
so great as to give thyself to something nobler than thyself if 
thou wouldst be ennobled, immortaUzed." In many pages of the 
last two volumes of his diary these notes of sympathetic love for 
his fellow-men are mingled with yearnings for solitude. " This 
book," he writes on the last page of one of them, " has answered 
some little purpose ; for when I wanted to speak to some one 
and yet was alone, it cost me no labor to scribble in it. It 
would give me great pleasure if I had a friend who would ex- 
change such thoughts with me." He was soon to enter into that 
spiritual heritage which among its other treasures bestows the 
beatitude of the sage, "■ Blessed is the man who hath found a 
true friend." 

Little by little a distinctly penitential mood came over him, 
and it occupies nearly the whole of the last volume of the diary 
with the most unreserved expressions of grief for sin, or, rather, 
for a state of sinfulness, since the specific mention of sins is 
nearly altogether wanting. We meet with page after page of 
self-accusation in general terms : "■ I am in want of greater love 
for those around me ; I perform my spiritual duties too negli- 
gently ; too little of my time is devoted to spiritual exercises. I 
feel all over sick with sin ! Here is my difficulty, O Lord, and 
do Thou direct me : I am always in doubt, when I do not 
think of Thee alone, that I am sinning and that my time is 
misspent." 

His protestations of sorrow are extremely fervent and very 
numerous; and as the Lent of 1845 approached he records his 

194 



From New York to St. Trond. 195 

purpose of restricting himself to one meal a day. As he never ate 
meat, nor any "product of animal life," and drank only water, 
his *' nuts, bread, and apples " once a day must have been his 
diet all through the penitential season. The reader will remem- 
ber ein herrliches Essen at Concqrd : '' bread, maple-sugar, and 
apples." 

In the middle of February he opened his mind more fully to 
Bishop McCloskey, whom he continually calls his spiritual direc- 
tor. He had now to reveal the discoveries of holy penance, and 
to add to his other motives for leaving the world the dread of 
faUing into mortal sin. He had, he tells us, misgivings as to 
whether he was ambitious or not. One of his spiritual states he 
thus alludes to : 

'' I will ask my confessor how it is — if it is so with others, 
that they feel ho sense of things, no joy, no reality, no emo- 
tion, no impulse, nothing positive within or around," but only 
the consciousness of the need of a terrible atonement. This is 
accompanied by frantic prayers to God, invocations of the Blessed 
Virgin, St. Francis of Assisi and other saints. And he says 
that he has been told that he is scrupulous, and complains that 
at confession he can only accuse himself in general terms. 

Complete abandonment to the divine will seems to have been 
the outcom.e ot a season of much distress of soul, and bodily 
mortification. On April 2 he writes : ** The last time I saw my 
director he spoke to me concerning the sacred ministry, and this 
is a subject I feel an unspeakable difficulty about. I told him 
that I desired to place myself wholly in his hands and should do 
whatever he directed. I do not wish to be any more than noth- 
ing. I give myself up. So far the Lord seems to be with me, 
and I hope that He will not forsake me in the future." 

As might have been anticipated, Bishop McCloskey's advice 
was wise. Plainly, his own hope was that young Hecker should 
enter the secular priesthood, but there is no evidence in the nu- 
merous references to the matter in the diary, that this caused 
him to do more chan make his young friend fully acquainted 
with that state of life. He had him call at the newly-opened 
diocesan seminary at Fordham and become acquainted with the 
professors. Bishop Hughes, whom he also consulted, urged him 
to go to St. Sulpice in Paris, and to the Propaganda in Rome, and 



196 The Life of Father Hecker 

make his studies for the secular priesthood. But they failed to 
win him to their opinion, and were too enlightened to seek to influ- 
ence him except by argument. Father Hecker ever held the very 
highest views on the dignity of the priesthood, considering its 
vocation second to none. But while he was irresistibly inclined 
to a state of retirement quite incompatible with the duties of the 
secular priesthood in America, he also felt the most urgent need 
of constant advice and companionship for guidance in his inte- 
rior life. These seemingly contradictory requirements he hoped 
to find united in a religious community, and Bishop McCloskey 
emphatically assured him that his anticipations jivould not be 
disappointed. In addition to this, Isaac Hecker had at least 
some premonitions of an apostolic vocation calling for a wider 
range of activity than can be usually compassed by the diocesan 
clergy. But we have often heard him say that the immediate 
impulse which induced his application to be made a Redemp- 
torist was need of '* intimate and careful spiritual guidance." 

His director therefore became satisfied that he should become 
a rehgious, and turned his attention to the Society of Jesus, giv- 
ing him the lives of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xav^ier to 
read, and, doubtless, answered his inquiries about that order. 
" But," he said in after years, **I had no vocation to teach young 
boys and felt unfitted for a student's life " ; added to this was 
the certainty of the postponement of any public activity on his 
part for many years if he became a Jesuit. 

After mentioning that he had read the hfe of St. Francis 
Xavier, he says that an acquaintance had written him that a 
German priest, living in Third Street, wanted to see him. This was 
one of the Redemptorist Fathers who were newly established in 
the city. This priest, whose name is not given, undertook to as- 
sume direction of Isaac, and was very urgent with him to make 
a spiritual retreat with a view to deciding his vocation. "■ He is 
a very zealous person — too much so it seems to me," is the 
comment in the diary, and the answer was a refusal. But what 
he saw in the community pleased and attracted Isaac, for every- 
thing was poor and plain, and there was an air of solitude. 
However, he wouid by no means change his spiritual adviser^ 
writing, ** I strive to follow my spiritual director or else I should 
be fearful of my state. All my difficulties, sins, and temptations 
I make him acquainted with. . . . Though the world has no 
particular hold upon me, I give it up once and for all. It gives 



From New York to St. Trond. 197 

me pain to feel my perfect want of faith in myself as being in 
any way useful." 

Meantime, on Trinity Sunday, he had been confirmed with 
his brother George, whose entrance into the Church is here first 
indicated ; no other member of the family became a CathoHc. 
Isaac took the additional name of Thomas on receiving this sac- 
rament, in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas. 

Again he writes : 

** I have tried to study to-day, but I cannot. Is it not the 
business of man to save his own soul, and this before all things ? 
Does the study of Greek and Latin help a soul towards its sal- 
vation ? Is it not quite a different thing from grace ? Sometimes 
I feel strongly inclined to set aside all study, all reading, as su- 
perficial and not so important as contemplation and silence." 

The time was coming when the Holy Spirit would do this in 
spite of him and in a way the reverse of pleasant. Meantime he 
worked away at his books and attended his classes at Cornelius 
Institute, which was the name of the private school he had been 
attending, till July 16, the commencement day. In recording 
his impressions of the school and the acquaintances there made, 
he says that with one possible exception the young men were of 
little interest to him, lacking earnestness of character. He does 
not name the teachers or give the location of the school. Yet he 
says his experience there had been useful " and chastened my 
hopes. I have seen by means of it much more clearly into the 
workings of Protestantism, its want of deep spirituality, its su- 
perficiality, and its inevitable tendency to no-religion." 

As may be supposed, his visits to Third Street became fre- 
quent, and his acquaintance with the Fathers better established. 
This was especially true with regard to Father Rumpler, who 
was rector of the house, a learned and able man and one 
of mature spirituality. He was a German born and bred, with 
the hard ideas of discipline peculiar to a class of his country- 
men though foreign to the genuine German character. He im- 
pressed young Hecker as a sedate man, wise and firm. The 
friendship then begun was maintained until Father Rumpler was 
deprived of his reason by an attack of acute mania several years 
later. But more than the friendship of Rumpler, as far as im- 
mediate results were concerned, was the providential circum- 



198 The Life of Father Hecker. 



stance of two other young Americans having applied to join the 
Redemptorists. To Isaac this was a stimulant of no ordinary- 
power. Like himself, they vvere converts and very fervent ones ; 
but, unlike him, they had come into the Church Tpom Episco- 
palianism. Clarence A. Walworth, son of the Chancellor of the 
State of New York, was a graduate of Union College. He 
studied law in Albany and practised his profession for a short 
time, but finally undertook the ministry. After three years in 
the Episcopal seminary he became a Catholic. Those who know 
him now can see the tall and graceful youth, pleasing and 
kindly, with the face and voice and soul of an orator ; for the 
force and charm of youth have not been weakened in receiving 
the dignity of old age. 

James A. McMaster was of Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish parent- 
age. His name is familiar to our readers as editor of the Free- 
man s Journal. Those qualities of aggressive zeal which made 
McMaster so well known to CathoHcs of our day were not 
wholly undeveloped in the tall, angular youth, still a catechumen, 
and intoxicated with the new wine of Catholic fervor. Young 
Mr. Walworth had been made a Catholic but a short time be- 
fore, and McMaster was received into the Church by the Re- 
demptorists in Third Street, his two young friends being present. 
While he was kneeling at the altar, candle in hand, piously 
reading his profession of faith to Father Rumpler, he accidentally 
set fire to Father Tschenhens' hair, one of the fathers assist- 
ing at the ceremony. Walking together afterwards in the little 
garden of the convent. Father Rumpler said to him : •* Mr. Mc- 
Master, you begin well — setting fire to a priest." *' Oh,'' answered 
he, " if I don't set fire to something more than that it will be a 
pity." These new friends of Isaac had applied to enter the Re- 
demptorist novitiate and they had been accepted. Tnis meant a 
voyage to Europe, for the congregation had not yet established 
a novitiate in America. 

One Friday, then, during the last days of July — the exact 
date we have not been able to discover — Isaac Hecker was in- 
formed by Father Rumpler that Walworth and McMaster would 
sail for Belgium the evening of the next day. " I decided to 
join them," he said when relating the circumstances afterwards. 
" Father Rumpler was favorable, but puzzled. And I must 
first present myself to the Provincial, Father de Held, who 
was in Baltimore. I arrived in Baltimore at four o'clock 



From New York to St. Trond. 199 

in the morning on Saturday, travelling all night. Father de 
Held looked at me, as I presented myself, and said that he 
must take time to consider. I explained about the departure of 
the others that day. He ordered Brother Michael to get me 
a bowl of coffee from the kitchen, and me to hear his Mass. I 
heard the Mass and after that he examined me a little — asked 
me to read out of the Following of Christ in Latin, which I 
did. He gave me my acceptance, and I rushed back to New 
York by the half past eight o'clock morning train. George had 
packed my trunk, and I sailed that day with the others." 

The picturesqueness of the group was certainly not lessened 
by the accession of Isaac Hecker, whose leap to and from 
Baltimore, though hardly to be expected from a contemplative, 
was in accord with the sudden energy of his nature. One who 
saw him at the time says that " he had the general make-up of 
a transcendalist, not excepting his long hair flowing down on his 
neck." 

The ship was an American one named the Argo, and she 
was bound for London. The voyage was every way pleasant, 
lasting but twenty-five days from land to land, with bright skies, 
quiet sea, and fair winds. Their berths were in the waist of the 
ship, in the second cabin, all the places in the first cabin hav- 
ing been taken ; this pleased them well, for they loved the poor 
man's lot. Isaac's passage money was paid by his brothers, and 
he was supplied by them and his mother with all sorts of con- 
veniences; and these, of course, he made to conduce to the 
comfort of. the entire party. The lower and larger berth of their 
little state-room was occupied by Walworth and McMaster, and 
Isaac took the upper and smaller one. None of them suffered 
from sea sickness. 

The young pilgrims were overflowing with happiness, as if 
they were going to the enjoyment of a rich heritage, as, indeed, 
in a spiritual sense they were. It was a first voyage to the Old 
World for all of them and they found everything interesting. 
They made friends with the crew, who were nearly all Yankee 
sailors, and who struck them as exactly like themselves, except 
that they were not religious ; and they sought entertainment with 
such of the passengers as were congenial, though in this Isaac 
Hecker was more ready than his companions. Father Walworth 
tells an incident characteristic of both himself and his transcendental 
companion. He was admonishing young Hecker to be more reti- 



200 The Life of Father Hecker. 

cent among the crew and was asked why. ** You wouldn't Hke 
to kneel down and kiss the deck before all those sailors," said 
Walworth. *' Why not?" was the reply. "Then do it." 
And down dropped Hecker to the deck and kissed it in all 
simplicity. 

They had many topics of interest to occupy their time ; Isaac 
favored such as were philosophical and social, his companions 
were absorbed by the Tractarian movement, its phases of thought 
and variety of persons, and all must have had much to tell of 
friends and relatives whom they hoped soon to see members of 
the Church. One night the harmony with their^ fellow-passen- 
gers was threatened with rupture. They were much annoyed by 
a violent dispute about the Trinity carried on in the adjoining 
cabin far into the night. McMaster finally lost patience, sprang 
out of bed, rushed among the disputants, and smote the table 
with a tremendous blow and shouted ''Silence!'' His remedy 
was efficacious ; the theologians scattered and went to bed. 

There was a marked difference between Isaac and his com- 
panions in controversial views. All three used their reason with 
the utmost activity, but he had travelled into the Church by 
the road of philosophy and they by that of history and Scripture. 
Their conversation must have been the exchange of intellectual 
commodities of very different kinds and for that reason expediting 
a busy commerce. They could profit by his bold and original 
views of principle and he was in need of their idea of the exter- 
nal integrity of organized religion. Then, too, they had much to 
say of the future, chiefly by way of conjecture, for no member of 
the order accompanied them. No one was superior and no su- 
perior was needed. As to devotional exercises each suited him- 
self, kneeling down and saying his prayers night and morning 
and at other times, in his own way and words. 

There was also difference in matters of devotion, for Isaac 
Hecker had little or no religious training, and as to the tradi- 
tional forms of religious practice he was very backward. The 
others had long since familiarized themselves with all Catholic 
usages. Young Walworth taught young Hecker how to say the 
rosary and initiated him, doubtless, into other common practices, 
which he assumed with the simplicity and docility of the child 
of guileless nature that he was. 

The ship, as wo have said, was bound to London, but our 
party were too impatient to wait till the end of the voyage and 



From New York to St. Trond. 20 r 

left her at Portsmouth in the pilot's boat; the sea was running" 
high, but so were their spirits, and although the boat was tossed 
about in a way to scare a landsman, they gladly went ashore 
and took the cars to London. We have before us a letter from 
Isaac Hecker to his brothers, dated the 29th of August, saying 
that they had been in London three days after a pleasant voy- 
age, and expressing deep joy at nearing the place of retirement 
and prayer for which he had been longing. He asks them to 
write to Brownson and especially to assure his mother of his 
happiness 

McMaster insisted on visiting Newman at Littlemore, and 
afterwards gave a glowing account of his visit. He had been re- 
ceived by the great man, who did not enter the Church till a few 
months later, with the utmost kindness. He found him standing- 
in his library, reading a book. He asked many questions about 
the tendency of men's minds in America, and was especially in- 
terested in Arthur Carey, with whose influence among American 
Episcopalians and early death the reader has been made ac- 
quainted. They lodged at a decent Httle inn over a pastry cook's 
shop and did not go sight-seeing to any extent. McMaster's com- 
panions did not wait for his return from Oxford, but when the 
packet sailed for Antwerp, which was Sunday, the 30th of Au- 
gust, they went down to Folkestone and took passage. They ar- 
rived the following morning, and, armed with a letter from Father 
Rumpler to a Madame Marchand, a warm friend of the congre- 
gation, they went straight to the nearest Church to inquire the 
way to her house. It happened to be the Jesuit church, and 
one of the fathers kindly guided them to the lady's house. She 
was delighted to serve them ; gave them an excellent dinner, 
and, after they had visited Rubens' great picture, the Descent 
from the Cross, set them forth on their journey ; but the '^ yea, 
yea and nay, nay " of Scripture, or rather jah, jah, nein, nehiy 
was their only conversation with the good lady, for although 
young Walworth could speak French and Isaac German, she knew 
nothing but Flemish. Distances are not great in little Belgium, 
and so before night they were at St. Trond, a little city about 
thirty-five miles southeast of Antwerp and twenty miles from 
Liege. Here they were soon joined by Mr. McMaster, and their 
novitiate began. Isaac Hecker was now twenty- five years and 
nine months old. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

BROTHER HECKER. 

THE Redemptorist novitiate at St. Trond, as well as the 
house of studies at Wittem, Holland, had been established by 
the immediate disciples of St. Clement Hofbauer. That great 
servant of God had introduced the Congregation of the Most 
Holy Redeemer into Austria and other parts of Germany several 
years before the time of which we write. A saint himself, and 
of wonderful missionary gifts, he was worthy of the title of sec- 
ond founder of the order of St. Alphonsus Liguori. St. Clement 
was the son of a Moravian peasant, and in early life had been 
a baker by trade. St. Alphonsus was still alive when Clement, 
while on a pilgrimage to Rome, was enrolled there in the Re- 
demptorist novitiate. This event was auspicious of the future of 
the entire community, since his apostolate was the means of 
propagating the order among the northern nations, and giving 
to it some of its present dominant chaiacteristics of Teutonic 
disciphne; whereas in the land of its origin it has never fully re- 
covered from the disasters which befell it during the lifetime of 
its founder. In Germany and the Low Countries, on the other 
hand, the children of St. Alphonsus and St. Clement were, at 
the time when the three Americans joined them, the most pow- 
erful preachers in the Church. Their vocation called them to 
give missions — spiritual exercises lasting from a week to a month 
— -to the faithful in every part of Catholic Europe, not except- 
ing France. Their fame was established as the foremost preach- 
ers of penance and of the Redeemer's love for sinners. 

St. Trond was the novitiate of the Belgian Province, which 
embraced Belgium and Holland as well as the newly established 
convents in England and America. The Provincial was Father 
de Held, whom we saw in Baltimore while he was there on a 
tour of inspection of the American houses. He was an Austrian 
German, a man of noble presence, matured spirituality and an 
accomplished missionary. Father Hecker knew him well in after 
years, and always counted him as one who understood his 
spirit and approved his aspirations. 

The convent in St. Trond was in a narrow street of the 
quaint little city; so narrow, indeed, that one almost fancied that 
he could touch both walls by stretching out his arms. It was 



Brother Hecker. 203 



a solid old structure, built in the first half of the fifteenth cen- 
tury by St. Colette for her Poor Clares, an ample guarantee of 
its conformity to the ideas of religious poverty. It was not ar- 
chitecturally fine, but was a curious and interesting building. 
Isaac in one of his letters home says that the house was very 
roomy, with long corridors having cells on each side. ' It 
abutted on a church which was open to the public and served 
by the fathers ; a window in the convent chapel looked into 
the sanctuary. Attached to the house was a garden of three 
or four acres. 

The country around the town is a typical Flemish landscape, 
flat, fertile, thickly dotted with farm buildings, and highly culti- 
vated. The people are wholly Catholic. The town is an old 
one, and in its time has had some military importance. Our 
young novices often walked upon the ramparts which encircled 
it. In the neighborhood are structures which were built be- 
fore the Christian era ; quite near by was one of Caesar's 
round towers, as well as the deserted ruins of an ancient city 
named Leo. Curious old churches and monasteries might often 
be seen by the novices on their long walks into the country. 
All this antiquity was the more pleasing to the American 
novices because in their own land the forests, the rivers, and the 
everlasting hills are all that represent the distant past. 

Besides twenty novices there were ten or twelve fathers at 
St. Trond, who either served the church or went about on mis- 
sions; and there were also a number of lay brothers. By 
nationality the greater portion of the novices were Belgians and 
Hollanders, the others being mostly Germans. The language 
of the house was French, though Latin was sometimes used. 
Of course this was an added difficulty to Brother Hecker, as he 
was now called, for he knew practically nothing of that language, 
though he had studied it a little. But he attacked it reso- 
lutely, and, as one of his companions said, learned it heels over 
head. He never feared to make mistakes, nor dreaded a smile 
at his expense, and as a consequence was soon able to talk to 
any one. But his French was always curious, and when he took 
his turn at reading during meals he gave the community some 
hearty laughs. 

All the new-comers were invested with the Redemptorist 
habit about three weeks after their arrival, in September, 1845. 
'*You can scarce imagine the happiness I felt on my arrival 



204 1^^^^ ^^/^ ^f Father Hecker. 

here," he writes to his mother in his first letter home. *' For 
three days my heart was filled with joy and gladness. I was 
like one who had been transported to a lovelier, a purer, and a 
better world." He tells her that he had waited for a fortnight 
before writing, to learn the place, and then, after expressing his 
satisfaction with everything in such sentences as the above, he 
fills the rest of the letter with arguments in favor of the Cath- 
olic Church and exhortations to join it. Such was the burden of 
all of his letters home from both St. Trond and Wittem. We have 
ten written from the novitiate. An exception must be made as 
to one which describes in detail the daily order of life in the 
novitiate. It is addressed to his mother. 

He tells her that the first bell rings at half-past four in the 
morning and the last at half-past nine at night. The time is 
divided between various common and private devotional exer- 
cises, including Mass, meditations, recitation of the office in 
common, study of the rule of the order, spiritual conferences, 
spiritual reading, and the like. Silence is broken only for an 
hour after dinner and another hour after supper. About an 
hour of out- door exercise is taken every day, and a long walk 
once a week and on feast-days. All of Thursday in each week 
and the more important feasts of the year are days of recre- 
ation, when silence need not be observed during the greater 
part of the day, and much relaxation is otherwise allowed. All 
Fridays are days of total silence and special devotion. The let- 
ter fails to mention the discipline, or flagellation, which was taken 
twice a week. 

He ends thus : " The time of the novitiate is one year, and 
its object is to prove our vocation, and form the religious char-, 
acter — the heart. The exercises may seem too many to you, 
but to us they are quite otherwise. Their frequent changes 
prevent them from being monotonous, and their variety makes 
them agreeable. Our time passes without our taking count 
of it, and our joy is that of a pure conscience, and our happi- 
ness that of a clean heart." 

It might seem a matter of peculiar difficulty for a free nature 
like Isaac Hecker's to conform to the stiff rules of such a sys- 
tem. But this was not the case, and a closer look into the 
matter shows that such a regimen is of much use to an earnest 
man, however free his character, at the outset of his spiritual ca- 
reer. Experience proves that one test of the genuineness of the 



Brother Hecker. 205 



interior disposition to serve God perfectly is readiness to sur- 
render exterior peculiarities. There is nothing in the special 
graces of God which should hinder a placid acceptance of the 
routine of a novitiate. The merging of individual conduct into 
the common custom is the contribution which community life 
must exact from every member. If a man is to be a hermit he 
may act from individual impulses alone, though, even so, rarely 
without counsel. But if one would live and work with others, 
special graces and individual traits of character must not be al- 
lowed to interfere with a certain degree of uniformity. On the 
other hand, that uniformity should not be allowed to cripple the 
spontaneous action of natural independence, and the inspiration 
of graces which are personal. 

It must be granted that with many souls a novitiate will tend 
to a routine use of religious aids. Yet it cannot be denied that 
its discipline forcibly concentrates the scattered purposes of life 
into one powerful stream. It contributes to symmetry of char- 
acter. It furnishes efficacious tests of sincerity. It drills dis- 
orderly natures into regularity. It acquaints the beginner with 
the literature of his holy profession, and herein it is of priceless 
worth. And finally, it provides advisers of approved wisdom 
during the period of the spiritual life when counsel is most needed, 
as well as most gratefully accepted. But if it fails in each of 
these particulars, as no doubt it sometimes does, the novitiate 
may be said never to fail in detecting an inaptitude for the 
common life, if such exists ; that is to say, a serious lack of 
the quahties which fit one to get along in peace with the 
brethren. 

Into the novitiates of the religious orders, and into the sem- 
inaries which hold their place for the secular priesthood, the 
noblest men of our race have entered joyfully ; some to be 
wedded to the Divine Spouse in the quiet seclusion of holy con- 
templation, and others, of the more militant orders, to be trained 
to follow worthily the standards of the apostolic warfare against 
vice and error. 

The novice-master was puzzled by his three Americans, 
though Brother McMaster was easily comprehended — an over- 
frank temperament, impulsive, and demonstrative. Not only 
were his banners always hanging on the outward wall, but his 
plan of campaign also. The other two were a study, and Brother 
Hecker was a curiosity. Yet both were cheerful, obedient, ear- 



2o6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

nest, courageous. The novice-master was annoyed at the 
Americans' incessant demand for the reason why of all things 
permitted, and the reason why not of all things prohibited; un- 
til at last Brother Walworth was named Brother Pourquoi. As 
to Brother Hecker, besides showing the same stand-and-deliver 
propensity, he occupied much of the time of conversation in 
philosophizing, plunging into the obscurest depths of metaphy- 
sical and ethical problems, using terms which were often quite 
unfamiliar to strictly orthodox ears, and exhibiting a fearless 
independence of thought generally conceded among Catholics 
only to practised theologians. Yet the novice-master was well 
pleased with both, though we shall see that his journey with 
Brother Hecker was for some time in the dark. 

When the Fourth of July came around he learned that it was 
the great American holiday, and he called the three Americans 
to him and asked, '' How do you celebrate your national holiday 
at home ? " ** By shooting off fire-crackers," they answered with 
a twinkle. This being out of the question, and the grand mili- 
tary parade which was next suggested also impracticable, Brothers 
Walworth and Hecker both exclaimed, '' Ginger-bread ! " " Take 
all you want," was the answer, ** and go off on a long walk, and 
spend the day by yourselves." And off they went to wander 
among the ruins of the outposts of the old Roman republic, and 
make Fourth of July speeches in honor of the great new Republic 
beyond the sea. Those who have been novices themselves will not 
be surprised at the boyishness of these three manly characters 
under the circumstances. 

Isaac Hecker's spirit was not anywise cramped by the routine 
exercises of the novitiate ; he made them easily and well. He 
always seemed to his companions what he actually was, and what 
he described himself to be in his letters to New York, a cheerful 
and contented novice. But, as one of them since expressed it, 
he was not a '* dude " novice, not the very pink of external 
perfection, and had a long period of interior trial. He did not 
exhibit at any time the least hesitancy about his vocation, for 
his mind was made up. Yet once, when he took a walk with 
Brother Walworth to visit a house of Recollects, Franciscans of 
the strict observance, both he and his companion were greatly 
struck by that charming poverty which the poor man of Assisi 
has bequeathed to his children; they did ask each other whether 
they had not made a mistake. This question, however, was but 



Brother Hecker. 20: 



the expression of a shadowy doubt, vanishing as suddenly as it 
had come. 

The novice-master was Father Othmann, and he was by uni- 
versal testimony entirely competent for his place. He was him- 
self the novitiate. Its austerities, and they were not trifling, its 
long and frequent prayer, its total seclusion from the world, all 
Avere refined and adjusted to each one by passing through his 
soul and being dispensed by his wisdom. Father Hecker re- 
garded him as a very remarkable man. He was a student of 
character, and wise and sagacious in varying the application of 
religious influences according to temperament and spiritual gifts. 
Under him the danger of formalism, which occurs to one's mind 
immediately as the incessant round of exercises is mentioned, w^as 
rendered remote; for he gave his instructions, and especially used 
the chapter of faults, in a way to infuse into the souls of the novices 
the ever-recurring freshness of individual initiative. His model 
(after St. Alphonsus) was St. Francis de Sales. He followed him 
constantly in his doctrine and methods, and often spoke of him 
and quoted him. Of other methods and their adv^ocates he 
spoke respectfully, but, however much they were in vogue, he 
did not follow theni. Brother Hecker was a faithful student in 
his school and learned much from Father Othmann. The latter 
especially insisted on the principle of accepting Providence as 
the chief dispenser of mortifications. He had no objection to 
self-imposed spiritual exercises, but he did not positively favor 
them. He taught his young men that the traditional practices 
of devout souls as embraced in the routine of the novitiate, were 
good mainly to break the resistance of corrupt nature and ren- 
der their souls phant subjects of the Divine guidance in the inte- 
rior life, as well as submissive to the order of God in the 
events of His external Providence. 

The assistant novice-master, who took Father Othmann's 
place during his absence, was a Walloon. His name we have 
been unable to discover, but he was a holy priest, held up to 
the novices as their model and esteemed by them as the saint 
of the novitiate. He was a very pleasant man withal, and no 
doubt added in every way to the fruits of the long year of 
spiritual trial. 

When Isaac Hecker presented himself as a novice he took 
his place among the youths learning the A, 3, C of the spiritual 
life, while he himself had experienced for many months the most 



2o8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

rare dealings of the Holy Ghost with the soul. This could not 
fail to come to the knowledge of Father Othmann, and, taken 
with the other peculiarities of his subject, to elicit his most skil- 
ful treatment. '' Pere Othmann, my novice- master," said Father 
Hecker, in after years, '* had a right to be puzzled by me, and 
so he watched me more than he did the others." He watched 
and studied him and gradually applied the two sovereign tests 
of genuine spirituality, obedience and humiliation. These were 
all the more efficacious in this case, because Brother Hecker was 
a man of great native independence of character and naturally 
of an extremely sensitive disposition. 

Such was the common austerity of the life thaf it took some 
ingenuity to inflict on a novice a mortification which had not 
grown stale by use in the case of one or more of the others. 
But in searching the interior of the soul the director could find 
tender places into which his weapon would be plunged to the 
bone. But it is more than probable that he misunderstood 
Brother Hecker, and that for a time he even suspected him of 
being under delusions. For several months, at any rate, he 
treated him at his weekly confession with the utmost rigor, pro- 
ducing indescribable mental agony. Many years afterwards, and 
when near his death, Father Hecker once said to the writer: 
" While I was kneeling among the novices, outside Pere 0th- 
mann's room, waiting to go to confession, I often begged of God 
that it might be His will that I should die before my turn came, 
so dreadful an ordeal had confession become on account of the 
severity of the novice-master." Yet, as recorded in the memoranda, 
the victim was eager for the sacrifice when the knife was not acta ■ 
ally lifted over him. " I begged the novice-master," he said on an- 
other occasion, " to watch me carefully, and when he saw me bent 
on anything to thwart me. I did not know any other way of 
overcoming my nature. He took me at my word, too. For ex- 
ample, once a week only we had a walk, a good long one, and 
we enjoyed it, and it was necessary for us. I enjoyed it very 
much indeed. So, sometimes when we were starting out, my 
thoughts bounding with the anticipated pleasure, he would stop 
me midway on the stairs: * Frere Hecker.' he would say, 'please 
remain at home, and instead of the walk wash and clean the 
stair- way.' It would nearly kill me to obey, such was my dis- 
appointment, grief, humiliation." 

In conjunction with these trials from without came a recur- 



Brother Hecker. 209 



rence of resistless interior impulses. " During my novitiate," he 
is recorded as saying in 1885, *' I found myself under impulses of 
grace which it seemed to me impossible to resist. One was to 
conquer the tendency to sleep. I slept on boards or on the 
floor. After a while I was able to do with five hours sleep, 
and often with only three, in the twenty- four. Pere Othmann 
was not unwilling for me to follow these impulses as soon as 
he became convinced of their imperative strength. Yet I now 
see that such practices were in a certain sense mistaken. They 
necessarily consumed in mortification vitahty that I could now 
use, if I had it, in a more useful way. Still, how could I 
help it ? " 

The end of this period of his humiliations, which was not 
far from the end of his noviceship, is thus described : " One day 
after Communion I was making my half-hour thanksgiving in 
my room, when Pere Othmann came in and examined me about 
my form of prayer. Oh ! it was just then that I had reached the 
passive state of prayer : / did nothing, Another did everything 
in my prayer. From that time, having put me down in the 
gutter, the novice- master raised me up to the pinnacle, whereas 
I should have been in neither place." On another occasion he 
told how the change of prayer had happened : *' I was on my 
knees one day after Communion, making a regular thanksgiving, 
when suddenly God stopped me, and I was told not to pray that 
way any more. Question : How were you told — what words were 
spoken to you ? Answer: Cease your activity. I have no need 
of your words when I possess your will. 'Tis I, not you, who 
should act. My action in you is more important than your 
thanks. I cease to act when you begin, and begin to act when 
you cease. Be still — tranquil — listen — suffer me to act. Abandon 
yourself to me, and I will take care of you." 

When in Rome, in the winter of 1857-8, he was compelled 
by circumstances, which will be told in their place, to make a 
written summary of his spiritual experience. In it he says : 
*\ My novitiate was one of sore trials, for the master of novices 
seemed not to understand me, and the manifestation of my in- 
terior to him was a source of the greatest pain. After about 
nine or ten months he appeared to recognize the hand of God 
in my direction in a special manner, conceived a great* esteem 
(for me), and placed unusual confidence in me, and allowed me 
without asking it, though greatly desired, daily Communion. 



2IO The Life of Father Hecker. 

During my whole novitiate no amount of austerity could appease 
my desire for mortification, and several gifts in the way of prayer 
were bestowed on me." 

On March 6, 1886, while in a state of almost utter physical 
prostration, he communicated to the writer the following: ''Forty 
years ago, in my novitiate, God told me that I was to suffer in 
every fibre of my being." " Perhaps," was remarked, *'you have 
not suffered all yet." Anszver : *' Perhaps not, but God has kept 
His promise in every limb, member, and function of my body." 
It may become necessary to refer again to these interior experi- 
ences. We leave them with the remark that his novitiate was 
characterized by a continuance of Divine interferences similar to 
those which had occurred at intervals from the time he was 
driven from home and business to seek the fulfilment of his as- 
pirations. 

The following is the record of a brave soul's failure to become 
a Redemptorist. It is given in a letter dated September 14^ 
1846: ** Brother McMaster, who returns to the U. S., gives me 
the opportunity of writing a few Hues to you," etc. It was a 
profound disappointment for Mr. McMaster to be obliged to 
return home a layman, and it shocked his companions. It is a 
little singular that Father Othmann told him that his vocation 
was not to be a religious, but an editor. He carried with him 
Brother Hecker's messages of affection to his friends and rela- 
tives, and rosaries of Isaac's own making for his mother and his 
brother George. 

Writing to the latter, on August 26, 1846, after some 
tender and affectionate words, he says : '' I have now nearly 
eight weeks until the time of taking the vows. Oh that it 
were but eight minutes, nay, eight seconds, when I shall be 
permitted, with the favor and grace of God, to consecrate my 
whole being and life to His sole service ! Millions of worlds put 
on top of one another could not purchase from me my vocation. 
We make fifteen days' retreat before we take the vows. You 
must recommend me very particularly to the Rt. Rev. Bishop 
McCloskey ; tell him the time of my taking the vows (Feast of 
St. Teresa, October 15), and give him my humble request to 
remember me at that time in his prayers." 

On Ihe feast of St. Teresa, October 15, 1846, therefore, the 
two American novices took their vows, and became members of 
the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. On the very 



Brother Hecker. 2 1 1 



morning of that event, at half-past eight, Brother Hecker wrote 
a letter to his mother, in which he goes over all cf his trials 
and experiences in following the Divine guidance since he first 
quitted business. He breathes intense affection in every word, 
and writes in a solemn mood. We would give the letter to the 
reader entire, but that he has already learned what it narrates. 
It ends thus : "■ Dear mother, in half an hour I go to the chapel 
to consecrate my whole being for ever to God and His service. 
What peace, what happiness this gives me ! To live alone for 
His love, and to love all for His love, in His love, and with 
His love ! " 

After the ceremony was over he wrote as follows to his 
brother John : 

'* Dear Brother John : This day, with the special grace 
of God, I~ have taken the holy vows of the Catholic reUgion, 
which are obedience, poverty, chastity, and final perseverance. 
These vows bind me to the Congregation of the Most Holy Re- 
deemer for my natural life, and the Congregation in the same 
manner to me. Thanks to God for His kind Providence. My 
vocation is once for all, for ever settled, firmly fixed. During the 
year and more of my novitiate I have not had any temptation 
against my vocation, nor any desire on my part to return to the 
world. 

" As you were not certain whether I would return after the 
novitiate or not, I suppose you left my name in connection with 
yours and brother George's in the firm. But now that this 
(separation) is certain, would it not be best for you to destroy 
that agreement we made with each other some time ago, that no 
future difficulty can or may arise ? All this I leave to your 
judgments; and as for me, dear brothers John and George, in 
respect to the business, you may regard me as though I had 
never been connected with it, nor had any title or claim upon 
it whatever. I am simply your dear brother Isaac, who loves 
you from the depth of his heart. This love, be assured, will never 
be diminished by any event ; whatever happens will only give 
me new motives to love you the more. My conduct is under 
your inspection, yours especially, dear John, as being the eldest 
of us three,- and I trust your sincere love for me will not let any 
word or action of mine pass unnoticcvd which may be the least 
unpleasant to you. 



212 The Life of Father Hecker. 

*' My love, my gratitude, and my prayers to and for you alL 
Remember me to all my friends. 

" Your brother, ISAAC. 

" vS/. Trond, October 15, 1846. 

" I have forgotten to say that if you have not already made 
use of the things that I left, such as clothing, you should da 
so. . I." 

In bidding adieu to the novitiate we think Father Hecker's 
last meeting with his old novice-master, as we find it recorded 
in the memoranda, will be of interest: " Pere Othmann was one 
of my best friends. Shortly before he died I happened to be in 
France (this was after leaving the Redemptorists), and I heard 
that he was extremely ill at the Redemptorist house at Nancy. 
I wrote to him that if he wished I would call and see him. He 
answered me at once, begging me to come immediately, as he 
desired above all things to see me before he died. So I made a 
journey to Nancy, and we had some hours of pleasant conference 
together, and I bade him farewell." 




CHAPTER XXIL 

HOW BROTHER HECKER MADE HIS STUDIES AND WAS 
ORDAINED PRIEST. 

THE day after the taking of the vows, Brothers Hecker and 
Walworth started by stage-coach for the house of studies, at 
Wittem in Dutch Limburg. The route lay nearly east through 
a country pleasant on account of the fertility of its soil and the 
industry of its inhabitants, and interesting from its churches, 
monasteries, and curious old villages. The travellers crossed the 
Meuse at Maestricht and reached their destination before night- 
fall. Wittem is a small town, thirty miles east of St. Trond and 
about ten west of Aix-la-Chapelle. This part of Holland is en- 
tirely Catholic, and its people possess a fervor which has sent 
missionaries to the ends of the earth. Everywhere shrines were 
to be seen by the roadsides. The ;:ountry is not so level as 
that west of the Meuse, and the Redemptorist students often 
made excursions among the hills, our young Americans admir- 
ing the shepherds guarding their flocks, with their crooks and 
their dogs. 

The house of studies was an old Capuchin monastery, large 
and plain and very interesting. The friars had buried their 
dead under the ground floor, which enabled the students to dig 
up an abundant supply of skulls as memento moris till the rector 
forbade it. The students were more numerous at Wittem than 
the novices had been at St. Trond. They were mostly Dutch- 
men, with a sprinkling of Belgians and a few Germans ; but the 
language of the house was French or Latin. We have not been 
able to make quite sure of the name of the Rector; possibly it 
was Father Heilig, who certainly was there at this time, either 
in charge of the house or as one of the professors. The Master 
of Studies was Father L'hoir, who soon became one of Brother 
Hecker's dearest friends. 

The two Americans found their fellow-students men of fine 
character and every way lovable, being earnest and devoted reli- 
gious. They admired their thorough proficiency in all classical 
and literary studies, the result of old-world method and applica- 
tion. Mentally and physically they were splendid men. The 
whole race of Flemings and Dutch was found by our 
young recruits to be a grave and powerful people, although ex- 



214 The Life of Father Hecker. 

ceptional cases of mercurial temperament were not rare. Some 
curious individuals were to be found among them, as is more 
the case in European nationalities in general than in our 
own. Both Americans were much liked and respected by all 
their new-found brethren, though Brother Hecker, for reasons 
soon to be told, was sometimes ridiculed in a way that distressed 
him. Brother Walworth, having studied much before entering 
the order, was placed at once in the theological department and 
Brother Hecker in the philosophical. The former was even dis- 
pensed from one year of his theology, taking but two years of 
the three which formed the full course. The difference of stud - 
ies separated the two companions almost wholly from each other, 
members of the two departments not being allowed even to, 
speak together except on extraordinary occasions. 

All went smoothly with Brother Walworth. Not so with 
Brother Hecker, who was expected to make two years of philoso- 
phy and meantime to increase his stock of Latin. But his faculties 
had been subjected to spiritual experiences of so absorbing a nature 
that he found study impossible. And when Brother Walworth 
was in due course ordained priest, in August, 1848, his com- 
panion was stuck fast where he had begun. It need not be said 
that so earnest a soul made every effort to study, but all was 
in vain. In the statement made in Rome ten years later, and 
referred to before, we find the following : 

'' My wish was to make a thorough course (of studies) and be- 
gin with philosophy. This the superior granted. My intellect 
in all scientific (scholastic) matters seemed stupid, it was with 
great difficulty that its attention could be kept on them for a 
few moments, and my memory retained of these things nothing. 
At the close of the first year (at Wittem) all ability to pursue 
my studies had altogether departed. This state of things per- 
plexed my superiors, and on being asked what they could do 
with me, my answer was, * One of three things : make me a lay 
brother ; send me to a contemplative order which does not re- 
quire scientific (scholastic) studies; or allow me to pursue, at my 
free moments, my studies by myself Instead of either of these 
they gave rne charge of the sick, which was my sole (regular) 
occupation for the whole year following. During this year my 
stupidity augmented and reduced me to a state next to folly, and 
it was my delight to be treated as a fool. One day, when my 



Brother Heckcr ordained Priest. 



fellow-students were treating me as such, and throwing earth at 
me, an ancient father, venerated for his gifts and virtues, sud- 
denly turned around to them and with emotion exclaimed, ' You 
treat him as a fool and despise him ; the day will come when 
you will think it an honor to kiss his hand.' At the expiration 
of the second year (at Wittem) the question came up again, 
what was to be done with me. My superior put this question 
to me, and demanded of me under obedience to tell him in writ- 
ing how, in my behef, God intended to employ me in the future. 
Though the answer to this question was no secret to me, yet to 
express it while in a condition of such utter helplessness required 
me to make an act of great mortification. There was no escape, 
and my reply was as follows: It seemed to me in looking back 
at my career before becoming a Catholic that Divine Providence 
had led me, as it were by the hand, through the different ways 
of error and made me personally acquainted with the different 
classes of persons and their wants, of which the people of the 
United States is composed, in order that after having made 
known to me the truth, He might employ me the better to point 
out to them the way to His Church. That, therefore, my voca- 
tion was to labor for the conversion of my non- Catholic fellow- 
countrymen. This work, it seemed to me at first, was to be ac- 
complished by means of acquired science, but now it had been 
made plain that God would have it done principally by the aid 
of His grace, and if (I were) left to study at such moments as 
my mind was free, it would not take a long time for me to ac- 
quire sufficient knowledge to be ordained a priest. This plan 
was adopted." 

A more explicit statement of the supernatural influences by 
means of which God informed him of his mission was made in 
after years to various persons, singly and in common. It was to 
the effect that the Holy Spirit gave him a distinct and unmis- 
takable intimation that he was set apart to undertake, in 
some leading and conspicuous way, the conversion of this 
country. That this intimation came to him while he was at 
Wittem is also certain ; but it is equally so that he had premoni- 
tions of it during the novitiate. It was the incongruity of such a 
persuasion being united to a helpless inactivity of mind in matters 
of study that made Isaac Hecker a puzzle to his very self, to say 
nothing of those who had to decide his place in the order. Father 



2i6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Othmann, in bidding him farewell at St. Trond, had told him to 
become ^' un saint fou,'' a holy fool; a direction based upon his 
excessive abstraction of mind towards mystical things, and his 
consequent incapacity for mental effort in ordinary aiTairs. Once, 
at least, during those two eventful years at Wittem, Father Oth- 
mann visited the place, and when he saw Brother Hecker he 
embraced him and exclaimed, *' O here is the spouse of the 
Canticles ! " His farewell injunction on parting at St. Trond had 
been pert~orce complied with. 

It must, have taken more than ordinary penetration to per- 
ceive anything but a kind of grandiose folly in Brother Hecker. 
The impulse to talk about the conversion of America, to plan 
it and advocate it, to proclaim it possible and prove it so, and 
to philosophize on the profoundest questions of the human rea- 
son, was irrepressible. This he did with an air of matured con- 
viction and with the impact of conscious moral authority, -but 
in terms as strikingly eccentric as the thoughts were lofty and 
inspiring, and in execrable French, the declaimer being known 
as minus habens in his studies and utterly incapable. All this 
was the very make-up of folly; and Brother Hecker was no 
doubt thought a fool. But how holy a fool he was his superiors 
soon discovered. We find the following among the memoranda: 

" Pere L'hoir was my superior in the studentate. He was a 
holy man and a good friend, but he was surprised at my state of 
prayer. He asked me how it could happen that I, a convert of 
only a few years, should have a state of prayer he had not at- 
tained though in the Church all his life and striving for perfection. 
I told him that it was God's will to set apart some men for a 
certain work and specially prepare them for it, and cause them, 
as He had me, to be brought under the influence of special Divine 
graces from boyhood. L'hoir then began to send anybody with 
difficulties to me, and God gave me grace to settle them. Then 
murmurs arose that he was too much under my influence, and he 
was removed from his position over the studies. But afterwards 
they replaced him ; he was very efficient in his place." 

The confidence of his superiors in Brother Hecker was shown 
by their causing him to receive tonsure and minor orders at the 
end of his first year at Wittem, though he had made no progress 
whatever in his studies. 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 217 

The following notes are found in the memoranda : 

"■ The time in my whole life when I felt I had gained the 
greatest victory by self-exertion was when, after weeks of labor, 
I was able to recite the Pater Noster in Latin. 

"My memory .finally failed me in my studies to that degree 
that at last I took all my books up-stairs to the library and told 
the prefect of studies I could do no more to acquire knowledge 
by study. 

"■ Question. How long Avere you unable to study ? Answer. 
Two years in Holland and one year in England. I never went 
to class those years. I was a kind of a scandal, of course, in the 
house. When I got a lucid interval of memory I studied, though 
much of the time I hadn't a book in my room. Yet, when 
they cair.e to ordain me, I knew enough and was sent at once to 
the work of the ministry." 

That his stupidity was not blameworthy is shown by the sym- 
pathy of Isaac's superiors ; that it was not natural is known to 
our readers by their acquaintance with his native ability exhib- 
ited in his journals and letters. The difficulty was confined al- 
most wholly to study ; to fix his attention on the matter in the 
text- books, or to grasp it and hold it in memory, was beyond his 
power. Meantime his letters to his friends in New York and 
elsewhere were full of life. He kept a copy of a carefully writ- 
ten one, addressed to an old-time friend of the Brook Farm com- 
munity. It is a model of brief statement of great truths, and 
proves that the social difficulty can only be fully remedied by the 
Catholic Church, which has an elevating force incomparably more 
powerful than any other known to humanity. The method used 
and the choice of arguments are peculiarly Isaac Hecker's own, 
and the tone, though affectionate, is one of authority, as that of 
an exponent of evident truth. His letters to his mother and his 
brothers are full of controversy, abounding in appeals to Scrip- 
ture, to the voice of conscience, to the dictates of reason ; and 
although the tone is one of deep affection, the attacks on Protest- 
antism are keen, and the use of facts and persons as illustrations 
full of intelligence. Most of the letters which we have found 
were addressed to his mother, for whose conversion he had 
an ardent longing. With one of them he sends her a little 
manuscript treatise on true Bible Christianity which he had him- 



2i8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

self prepared. We give the reader extracts from two letters, the 
first from one to his brother John and the second from one to 
his mother : 

*' Your lamentation, dear John, on my separation from you, 
excites in me a great astonishment. To justify this separation it 
seems to me that you have only to open a page of the Gospels of 
Christ, and to read it with a sincere behef in the words and a 
generous love of the Saviour. As for me, I regret nothing so much 
as that I have not a thousand lives to sacrifice to His service and 
love. Yes, I love you all more than I ever did, and I would count 
nothing as a cost for your present and eternal good. Yet, by 
the grace of God, I love my Saviour infinitely, infinitely, infinitely 
more. Alas ! when will those who profess to be Christians learn 
the significance of Christ's Gospels and His blessed example. I am 
not ignorant nor insensible of the love we owe to our parents 
and relatives — no, I am not insensible of this love ; but in me it 
is all in Christ, as I would wish yours were. ... I embrace you, 
dear brother, in the love of our crucified Lord." 

• " Dear Mother : There have been times when, considering 
the wickedness of the world, sensible of its miseries and my own, 
and at the same time beholding obscurely and as it were tasting 
the things of heaven, I have longed and wished to be separated 
from the body. But when coming back to myself, and thinking 
that with the aid of grace I can still increase in God's love and 
hence love Him still more in consequence for all eternity, I feel 
willing to love and suffer until the last day, if by this I should 
acquire but one drop more of Divine love in my heart. And so 
it is, as St. Paul declares, that we should count the trials here as 
nothing compared with the glory that awaits us. Now, all these 
considerations, dear mother, join together to increase my desire 
to see you in the communion of the Holy Catholic Church, to 
which God has singularly given so many means of growing in 
grace," etc., etc. 

Notwithstanding these marks of active intelligence, Brother 
Hecker could not study, except by fits and starts. Often he 
could not get through the common prayers, and in ordinary con- 
versation his tongue would sometimes be tangled among the 
wDrds of a sentence before he was half through with it. The 



I 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 219 

reader has already learned that the penalties of utter stupidity 
were not unknown to the unwritten law of the Wittem student- 
ate, notwithstanding that the young men were devout religious ; 
and hence Brother Hecker must have had many hours of 
anguish. But we cannot suppose that his native cheerfulness was 
quite suppressed. His dulness of mind was accompanied, or 
rather was the result of, the close embraces of Divine love. It 
was the bitter part of that intimate communion with God which 
is granted to chosen souls. No doubt he was profoundly 
humiliated by the disgrace involved in his failure to study, but 
he was Avilling to suffer that external degradation which was the 
complement of, and the means of emphasizing, the teaching of the 
Holy Spirit in his interior, as well as the means of purify- 
ing his soul more and more perfectly. In after years he related 
an instance of his lightness of heart, a natural quality which he 
shared with his companion, Brother Walworth. The bishop of 
some neighboring diocese, Aix-la-Chapelle, if we remember rightly, 
happening to visit the house at Wittem, was told of the two 
American students. He conversed with them in the recrea- 
tion, the language being French. Then he said : " I know how 
to read English, but I have never heard it spoken ; can you 
not speak a little piece for me ? " ** Certainly," was the answer. 
After a moment's consultation the two young men in all serious- 
ness recited together '' Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled 
peppers," etc. No wonder that the prelate was astonished at the 
peculiar sound of English. Then he asked them for a song. 
"Oh, of course," was the answer, and they sang in unison "The 
Carrion Crow," with full chorus and imitations. 

Besides taking care of the sick, for which he was admirably 
fitted by nature. Brother Hecker made himself generally useful 
about the house. He spent much time working among the 
brothers in the kitchen, and the writer has heard him say that 
for nearly the whole of his stay in Wittem he baked the bread 
of the entire community. He also carried in the fuel for the 
house, using a crate or hod hoisted on his back. 

In August, 1848, Brother Walworth was ordained priest, and 
it was decided that he and Brother Hecker, together with two 
young Belgian priests, Fathers Teunis and Lefevre, should pro- 
ceed to England, the Redemptorists having been recently in- 
troduced there. As the cassock is not worn in the streets in 
England they were sent from Wittem to Liege and there 



220 The Life of Father Hecker. 

equipped with clerical suits, the tailor being cautioned not to 
be too ecclesiastical in the cut of the garments. He produced 
a ridiculous compromise between a fashionable frock-coat and a 
cassock, the waist being high and tight and the tails full and 
flowing, and flopping about the young clerics' heels. As they 
journeyed from Liege to Amsterdam, and thence to London, 
people stopped and stared at them in their stylish array, and 
some laughed at them. In this instance Brother Hecker's cha- 
grin was not overcome by his sense of the ludicrous, for he v/as 
naturally very sensitive of personal unbecomingness, and al- 
though not precisely a martinet for clerical exactness, he had 
strict notions of propriety. 

The new Redemptorist foundation was at Clapham, three 
miles south of London Bridge. The house was a large, old- 
fashioned mansion and had been owned by Lord Teignmouth, a 
notorious anti-Cathohc bigot. Some of the larger rooms had 
been thrown together into one, and this was used temporarily as 
a public chapel. Just as the young Redemptorists arrived, 
Father Petcherine was preaching to the congregation. He was 
a Russian convert, and the new-comers were astonished at his 
good English and his eloquence. He was one of the many ex- 
traordinary men who adorned the order at that time. He 
was master not only of his native tongue, but of English, 
German, Itahan, French, and modern Greek, and could preach 
well in all of these languages. Clapham was reached on Sep- 
tember 23, 1848, and shortly afterwards Father Walworth was 
sent to do missionary as well as parish work in Worcestershire, 
and remained there the greater part of the two years which 
were spent by our Americans in England. 

From Clapham Brother Hecker wrote, on September 27, 
1848: 

'* I am at present, dear mother, in a newly- established house 
in the city of London, having come here by order of my supe- 
riors to continue and finish my studies. Bodily I am nearer to 
you than I was, and naturally speaking I am much more at 
home here than I was on the Continent. But this is of little or 
no moment, for a good religious should find his home where 
he can best execute the will of his Divine Master. And would 
you not, dear mother, rather see me in China than in the 
United States if, by being there, I should be more agreeable to 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 221 

our Blessed Saviour, who left the house of His Father to save us 
poor abandoned sinners upon the earth ? Our house here is 
situated somewhat out of the dense and busy part of the city, 
at Clapham ; a fine garden is attached to it, and even in a 
worldly view I could not desire it to be more agreeable. And 
did not our Lord promise to give those who would leave all to 
follow Him, ' a hundred fold more in this world and life ever- 
lasting in the world to come '? Alas ! how many profess to be- 
lieve in the Bible and have no faith in the words which our 
Lord spoke," etc., etc. 

The difficulties of Wittem were not abated at Clapham ; rather 
they were aggravated by Brother Hecker having to deal with 
new superiors. *' I remember seeing Hecker at Clapham, lookino- 
hopelessly into his moral theology," said Father Walworth to the 
writer. Father Frederick de Held, whom we left in Baltimore, 
had returned to Europe, being Provincial of the Belgian Province, 
which at that time included the English as well as the American 
missions. It must have ^seemed strange to him that Brother 
Hecker had been sent to England ; he had no house of studies 
to put him into and could give him no regular course of in- 
struction. We cannot even surmise what word was sent to 
Father de Held about this curious young man, whom early one 
summer's morning three years before he had seen flittino- into 
Baltimore and out of it, taking with him the Provincial's leave 
to enter the novitiate. Perhaps the case had been sent to him 
because it was too perplexing for any authority less than his to 
settle. At any rate, it placed him in an awkward position, to 
decide the case of this lone applicant for orders, who had made 
no studies and could make none, and yet who was of so 
marked a character, so full of life, so zealous, working willino-ly 
about the church, eagerly working in the kitchen, talking deep 
philosophy and forming plans for the conversion of nations. 
His case was peculiar. The difficulty was not confined to the 
question of divinity studies. Brother Hecker's general educa- 
tion was scant, and his English was still faulty. And yet he 
was silently asking ordination in a preaching order, for which a 
thorough education is a prerequisite. Father de Held, there- 
fore, is not to be condemned for his harshness as wanting in 
sympathy or in judgment of character. Gold is tried by fire, 
and fire is an active agent and a painful one. But Brother 



222 The Life of Father Hecker, 

Hecker soon found both solace and assistance in a new 
friend. 

We quote from the memoranda : 

*' Father de Held was superior at Clapham and for a year he 
treated me as Henry Suso says a dog treats a rag — he took me 
in his teeth and shook me. At last I went to him and begged 
him to settle my case one way or the other : ordain me, or make 
a lay brother of me, or take off my habit and dismiss me to an- 
other order ; though I told him that would be like taking off 
my skin. Father de Buggenoms then went my surety. He had 
been my confessor at Clapham and was then absent. But he 
wrote to De Held that he would guarantee my conduct if ordain- 
ed. De Held then changed and became my fast and constant 
friend." 

This is the first mention we find of Father de Buggenoms. 
Father Hecker ever venerated him and cherished his memory as 
that of a saintly friend and benefactor. 

On another occasion we find a fuller account of the same 
events : 

" Only for Father de Buggenoms I should not have been or- 
dained at all." 

"Who was De Buggenoms?" 

'' A Belgian, and my confessor while I was at Clapham. I 
was there, not ordained, nor yet making my studies. I had 
been forced to give them up ; I could not go on with them. 
De Held did not know what to make of me, and he treated me 
harshly and cruelly. Finally I went to him and told him my 
thoughts; I said I was absolutely certain I had a rehgious 
vocation ; that he might compel me to take off the habit, but it 
would be like taking off my skin ; and so on. After that inter- 
view De Held changed toward me and was ever after my warm 
friend. He was a very prominent member of the Congregation. 
You know he came within a few votes of being Re c to i'- major. 
He was very warm in his sympathy with us during our trouble in 
Rome. Well, Heilig, a German, was about coming over to Eng- 
land as superior. He had been my director for two years. Be- 
fore he came he wrote me a letter that gave me indescribable 
pain. He wrote that I must change — that I was all wrong, 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 223 

and so on. I answered that it was too late to change ; that he 
had been my director for two years, knew me well, and had 
been cognizant of my state If he wanted me changed he must 
do it for me, for I did not see how to do it for myself When 
he came, De Buggenoms told him to have me ordained, set me to 
work at anything, and he (De Buggenoms) would be responsible for 
me in every respect. Heilig complied. I asked him afterwards 
why he wrote that letter. 'Because,' said he, *I thought you 
needed to be tried some more.' 'Why,' said I, 'I have had 
nothing but trial ever since I came,' " 

From this it would seem that the case was finally settled by 
Father Heihg after Father de Held's departure for the Continent, 
which took place, as well as we can discover, some time in the 
summer of 1849. Father Heilig's letter, written from Liege, is 
before us; -it is dated the 24th of March, 1849. It is a complete 
arraignment of Isaac Hecker's spiritual condition. It is gentle, 
considerate, choice of terms, but condenses all that could be 
said to show that his young friend had been deluded by a vision- 
ary temperament, applying to himself what he had read in mysti- 
cal treatises and the lives of the saints. The letter was indeed a 
deadly blow. Father Heilig had been Brother Hecker's confessor 
for two years at Wittem, and had at least tacitly approved his 
spirit; and now came his condemnation. No wonder that Isaac 
was profoundly distressed by it. Yet his conviction of the validity 
of his inner life was not shaken for an instant. Nor was the trial 
of long duration. We have found a letter from Father Heilig 
dated two months later than the one we have been considering, 
and it is full of messages of reassurance and encouragement. The 
intervention of De Buggenoms completed the work. It is possible 
that Father Heilig had not simply a desire to test Brother 
Hecker's humility, but, by studying the effect of the trial imposed, 
to remove doubts still lingering in his own mind. Some words 
in both the letters referred to lead us to this inference. 

Father L'hoir had not forgotten his young friend, who re- 
ceived a letter from him a couple of months after leaving Wittem, 
which breathes in every word the tenderest utterance of friend- 
ship ; and a year after, another one similarly affectionate, congra- 
tulating him on his ordination. This Father L'hoir must have 
been a noble soul to write so lovingly ; we wish that space per- 
mitted us to give his letters to the reader. 



224 The Life of Father Hecker. 



Amongst the papers left by Father Hecker we found one 
carefully preserved, bearing date at St. Mary's, Clapham, the feast 
of St. Raphael (Oct. 24) 1848, a month after his arrival there. 
It is a manuscript of thirty-nine closely- written pages of letter- 
paper. It is an account of conscience made, no doubt, to Father 
de Held, though its preparation may have occupied some of his 
time before leaving Wittem. We will make some extracts. It 
begins thus : 

"Before commencing what is to follow, I cannot resist mak- 
ing the confession of my feebleness and incapacity to express 
even conveniently those things which I feel it my duty to relate, 
that I may walk with greater security and quicker step in the 
way of God. It would not surprise me if one who has not 
taken the pains to investigate this matter sufficiently should 
doubt indeed whether such singular graces, seeing the faults I 
daily commit and my many imperfections, had really been given 
to such an individual. A similar remark to this was made by 
my last director. But this is a cause of much joy and con- 
solation to me ; (that is to say) that my interior life is hid 
and unknown to others except those who direct me. All that 
I can adduce in behalf of its truth and credibility are these 
words of sacred Scripture : Spiritus ubi vult spirat (the Spirit 
breatheth where He will) ; and, ubi autem abundavit delictum, 
superabundavit gratia (but where sin abounded there did grace 
more abound.) 

*' At that time (towards the end of the novitiate) I felt a 
special attraction and devotion toward Our Blessed Lord in the 
Holy Sacrament and an almost irresistible desire of receiving 
the blessed Communion of Divine love. This desire so far from 
having abated has greatly increased, so that I have a constant 
hunger and thirst for Our Lord in the sacrament of His body and 
blood. If it were possible I would desire to receive no other 
food than this, for it is the only nourishment that I have a real 
appetite for. I cannot consider it other than the source and 
substance of my whole spiritual and interior life. The day on 
which I have been deprived of it I have experienced a debility 
and want of both material and spiritual life like one who is 
nearly famished. The doctrine of the real presence of our Lord 
seems to be with me a matter of conviction arising more from 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 225 

actual experience tlian from faith. At times, when I would 
make my visit, I am seized with such a violent love towards 
the Blessed Sacrament that I am forced to break off imme- 
diately, being unable to support the attraction of the Spouse, the 
Beloved, the Only One of my soul. For some time back, wher- 
ever I may be, or on whatever side I turn, I seem to feel the 
presence of Our Lord in the Sacrament in the tabernacle. It 
seems as though I were in the same sphere as our Lord in the 
sacrament, where there appears no time nor space, yet both are. 

" At times, especially during the great retreat before making 
the vows I was as it were inebriated with love, so that I 
scarcely knew what I said or did. 

" This was the stage of my interior life on entering the house 
of studies at Wittem, October, 1846. Here the principal acts in 
all my spiritual exercises were those of resignation and conform- 
ity to the will of God, an entire fidelity to the inspirations and 
attractions of the Koly Spirit, and a total abandonment of my- 
self to the conduct of Divine Providence. God seemed always 
engaged in my soul by means of His grace in repressing my 
own activity. The end of my proper activity, I said to myself, 
is its destruction. God commands a total and entire abandon- 
ment of the soul to Him in order that He may with his grace 
destroy and annihilate all that He finds in it against His designs 
and will. God at times seemed to demand of me a frightful and 
heroic abandonment of my soul to His good pleasure. God alone 
knows how to exercise the soul in virtue, and the Holy Spirit 
is its only true master in the spiritual life. Not only did the 
spirit of God excite and elicit in me voluntary acts of self- 
abandonment, but often my soul was as if stripped of all sup- 
port, and placed, as it were, over a dark and unfathomable 
abyss, and thus I was made to see that my only hope was to 
give myself up wholly to Him. The words of Job well ex- 
press this purgation of the soul when he says : * The arrows 
of the Lord are in me, the rage whereof drinketh up my spirit, 
and the terrors of the Lord war against me.' [Here follow other 
quotations from the book of Job.] Sometimes these pains pene- 
trate into the remotest and most secret chambers of the soul. 
The faculties are in such an intensive purgation that from the 
excessive pain which this subtile and purifying fire causes they 



226 The Life of Father Hecker, 

are suspended from their ordinary activity, and the soul, incap- 
able of receiving any relief or escaping from its suffering, has 
nothing left but to resign itself to the will and good pleasure of 
God. Though enveloped with an unseen but no less real fire, 
suffering in every part, limb, and fibre from indescribable pains, 
fixed like one who should be forced to look the sun constantly 
in the face at midday, she is nevertheless content, for she has a 
secret consciousness that God is the cause of all her sufferings, 
and not only content — she would suffer still more for His love." 

[Here follows an account of the mortifications to which 
this interior pressure drove him, shortening of sleep, wearing 
hair-shirts, severe discipline, abstinence and fasting, and the 
like.] 

*' There were no penances that I have read of that seemed to 
me impossible. The vilest habits and other things that I was 
allowed to wear and to use gave me the greatest pleasure. The 
thought of not having wherewith to cover my nakedness, to be* 
contemned, ridiculed, and spit upon, gave me an extreme joy. 
My delight consisted in wanting that which is considered neces- 
sary. . . . All this I did not only do without reluctance, 
difficulty, and pain, but with great pleasure, ease, and joy. They 
seemed as nothing, and I was as though I had scarcely need of 
a body in order to live, or, in other words, it seemed that I lived 
for the most part independent of the body. 

** It was about this period that God gave me the grace which 
I had long desired and sighed after : to be able to act and suffer 
without the idea of any recompense. I call it a gift, for although 
I had so long wished and demanded of God the power to act 
and to love Him disinterestedly, still I was unable to do so. I 
felt myself a slave and hireling in the service of God, and this 
mortified me and made me much ashamed of myself But when 
this grace was given, which happened unexpectedly, I could not 
forbear going immediately to my director to express my joy of 
the favor I had received, and the freedom and magnanimity of 
soul which it inspired me with. I do not mean to say that the 
soul has no idea of any recompense, for she has it tacitly, but 
this is not her formal intention in her actions ; for she is to such 
a degree animated to act for the good pleasure and sole glory 
of God, that she quasi forgets all else. 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 227 

" Sometimes I have felt singularly present and in intimate 
communion with certain of the saints, such as St. Francis of As- 
sisi, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas, St. Peter of Alcantara, our 
holy father Alphonsus, etc. During this time — and sometimes it 
is for many days — the life, the virtues, the spirit with which the 
saint acted occupies almost exclusively my mind. I seem to feel 
their presence much more intimately and really than that of 
those who are around me. I understand and comprehend them 
better, and experience a more salutary influence from them than 
perhaps I would have done had I Hved and been with them in 
their time. . . . Twice I remember having experienced in 
this manner the presence of Our Blessed Lord. While this lasted 
I felt myself altogether another person. His heroic virtues, His 
greatness, tenderness, and love seemed to inspire me with such 
a desire to follow Him and imitate His example that I lost sight 
of all things else. His presence excited in me a greater love and 
esteem for the Christian virtues than I could have acquired other- 
wise in years and years. ... 

'* About the commencement of the second year of studies, 
during some weeks my faculties were drawn and concentrated to 
such a degree towards the centre of my soul that I was as one 
bereft of his exterior senses and activity. Before the vacation I 
had desired to pass that time in solitude and retreat, but it was 
not allowed." 

We have omitted much of this singular document, including 
detailed accounts of supernatural occurrences, and also quotations 
from the works of Gorres, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, 
St. Bonaventure, Father Rigoleu, Richard of St. Victor, Scara- 
melH's Directorium Mysticum, and other mystical writings. These 
reierences he had collected to certify to the reaHty of his ex- 
perience. 

Throughout all these three years of trial he had employed 
what he calls his ** lucid intervals " of mental power in studying 
in his own way, God aiding him in His own way to the des- 
tined end, as He had hindered him from choosing any other 
way. These intervals seemed so slight in his memory that the 
reader has seen his statement that he had not studied at all. 
When he had been a year at Clapham he was found, on exami- 
nation, to be well enough prepared, as he had promised he would 
be. Having been ordained sub-deacon and deacon at Old Hall 



228 The Life of Father Hecker. 

College, by Bishop Wiseman, he was ordained priest by the same 
prelate in his private chapel in London. The event took place 
on the 23d of October, 1849, the feast of the Most Holy Re- 
deemer. Father Hecker said his first Mass the following day at 
Clapham, that being the feast of St. Raphael the Archangel: one 
year from the date of his account of conscience written out and 
given to his superiors. 

The following is from a letter to his mother announcing his 
ordination : 

''Dear Mother: You have been doubly blessed by Al- 
mighty God within the past few weeks. Your youngest son 
has been ordained priest in God's one, holy, Catholic Church, 
and prays for you daily when he offers up to God the precious 
body and blood of His beloved Son, our Lord ; and besides you 
have received, by the marriage of another of your sons [George], 
a new daughter, who, being also a child of the Holy Church, 
must be kind, dutiful, pious, fearing God, and loving above all 
things our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Are not these, dear 
mother, blessings ? Do they not convey to your heart joy and 
consolation? They ought and surely do. Your latter days 
dear mother, will be your happiest." 

The remainder of the letter is filled with exhortations to 
enter the Church, and arguments drawn from Scripture. 

We may mention a letter written to Father Hecker by 
Father Heilig on the eve of the former's departure for America ; 
a message full of affectionate good wishes and claims of friend- 
ship and union in prayer with the singular young pilgrim from 
the Western World. 

The following extracts from the memoranda may be of in- 
terest as embodying Father Hecker's views of how to study 
divinity, resulting from his own experience in preparing for the 
priesthood : 

^^ March, 1884. — I told Father Hecker, in course of conversa- 
tion, about my reading the life of the Cure of Ars. He said : ' A 
saintly man indeed, and one gifted with a supernatural char- 
acter to an extraordinary degree. But it seems to me that his 
biographer misunderstood him somewhat. He seems to admit 
that the Cure of Ars had a naturally stupid mind, because he 



Brother Hecker ordained Priest. 229 

had so much difficulty in getting through his studies for the 
priesthood. The truth, probably, was that just at that time the su- 
pernatural action of the Holy Spirit came upon him and incapaci- 
tated him for his studies. But everything about his after life shows 
that, though a rustic man, he had a good mind, a keen native 
wit, quick and clear perception, I had something the same dif- 
ficulty myself 

*' During my novitiate and studies one of my great troubles 
was the relation between infused knowledge and acquired knowl- 
edge ; how much one's education should be by prayer and how 
much by study; the relation between the Holy Ghost and pro- 
fessors. 

" In the novitiate they were all too much on the passive side 
— unbroken devotional and ascetic routine. In the studentate, 
too much on the active side — leaving nothing for infused science 
and prayer as a part of the method of study. They soon broke 
me down. I told them so. If I went on studying I would 
have been driven mad. Let me alone, I said. Let me take my 
own way and I will warrant that I will know enough to be or- 
dained when the time comes. They said I was a scandal. 
Then they sent me to England to De Held. I am persuaded that 
in the study of divinity not enough room is given to prayer and 
not enough account- made of infused science." 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY. 



n 



" T WOULD not have become a priest had I lived in Europe, 
1 for I never had or could have any strong attrait for sacer- 
dotal functions. But I felt that the Church in America was in 
need of all the help that could be given by her children for the 
work of the priesthood." Father Hecker said this when near his 
end, and a full knowledge of his character bore him out in it. 
The sacerdotal, the ecclesiastical, were qualities which he had as- 
sumed with full consciousness of their sanctity, yet they united 
with his other characteristics in a way to leave traces of the 
point of contact. He was certainly an edifying priest, and to 
hear his Mass was to be spiritually elevated by his joyous fervor. 
But you would never say of him '' he is a thorough ecclesiastic, 
he is a typical priest." The external aids of religion he im- 
parted with a reverence which displayed his faith in his priestly 
character as a dispenser of the sacramental mysteries of God. 
But the other mysteries of God which are hidden in his provi- 
dential guidance of men, he could expound with the instinctive 
familiarity of a native gift ; the voice of God in nature, in 
reason, and in conscience, and its response in revelation, he 
could elicit with a power and unction rarely met with. He has 
left the following words on record : '' After my ordination the 
duties of the sacred ministry appeared to me most natural; the 
hearing of confessions and the direction of souls was as if it 
had been a thing practised from my childhood, and was a 
source of great consolation." 

The year spent in England after ordination was occupied by 
Father Hecker mainly in parochial duties at Clapham and some 
neighboring stations attended by the Redemptorists of that 
house. Father Walworth enjoyed some missionary experience 
with Fathers Pecherine and Buggenoms, but Father Hecker had 
only been at one or two small retreats — one at Scott- Murray's 
estate in company with Father Ludwig and another at that of 
Weld-Blundells in Lancashire; but in neither of these had he 
preached or given any instructions, serving only in the confes- 
sional and in hunting up obstinate sinners. He certainly did 
preach once before leaving England, perhaps only once, and 
that was at Great Marlowe, near London, in the church built 



A Redemptorist Missionary. ' 231 

by the Hornihold family. It was on Easter Sunday, 1850, and 
was well remembered by Father Hecker and referred to in 
after years. He thought the sermon a good one as a begin- 
ning, but it seems to have given him no encouragement, and 
we venture to think that if it profited his hearers somewhat it 
also amused them a little. He needed a teacher, and he found 
one in Father Bernard, the newly appointed provincial of the 
American province. 

In 1850 Father Bernard Joseph Hafkenscheid * was made 
Provincial of the Redemptorist houses in America. His patro- 
nymic was too formidable for ordinary use, and he was univer- 
sally known as Father Bernard. He was in the prime of life on 
taking this ofiice, and although he had spent twenty years on 
the missions in Holland, his native country, in Belgium and 
England, he yet showed no signs of these labors ; he continued 
them for fourteen years longer, for the most of the time in the 
Netherlands, his death resulting from accident in 1865. By 
common consent he is ranked in the highest order of popular 
preachers. He had entered the community from the secular 
priesthood shortly after his ordination ; he had made a brilliant 
course of studies at Rome, which was crowned by the doctorate 
of the Roman College. He was physically a tall, powerful man, 
and of majestic bearing. His features were full of inteUigence, 
his glance penetrating, his voice clear, sympathetic, and vibrat- 
ing, his gestures expressive. If half that is handed down of 
Father Bernard be true, he was a wonderful preacher of penance 
and of hope, his high gifts of natural eloquence served by a 
perfect education and inspired by a most enthusiastic love of 
the people. 

He was a popular preacher in the best sense of the term, 
calm in demeanor and simple in language as he opened, but 
when at the point of fervor pouring forth his soul in a fiery 
torrent of oratory, whose only restraint was the inability of the 
human voice to express all that the heart contained. In style 
impassioned, he yet often chose language bordering on the 
familiar, but was not vulgar. He is an instance of the fallacy 
of the saying that the preacher must stoop to his auditory if he 
would be popular. Father Bernard was ever true to himself, 

*The reader is referred to his life by Canon Claessens (Catholic Publication Society Co.) 
li is all too brief, yet is a good summary of the career of the great Redemptorist mis- 
sionar)% one of St. Alphonsus' noblest sons. 



232 The Life of Father Hecker. 



never appeared less than an educated priest and grave religious, 
and yet he was a most popular preacher. The great truths of 
eternal life are a universal heritage, and the use of plain 
words is not getting down from good style even in the literary 
sense, and a familiar manner is a trait of affection. We have 
stopped the reader for this moment with Father Bernard because 
he was Father Hecker's teacher of mission preaching and in- 
structing, and was ever beloved by him as an appreciative 
friend and a wise and indulgent preceptor. He had made his 
first visit to America with Father de Held in 1845, but remained 
only a few months to acquire information and gain impressions 
for a report to the Rector Major. He made a second voyage 
in January, 1849, acting as superior of the American houses, as 
Vice Provincial, and remained about eighteen months. The 
United States now forming a separate province and Father Ber- 
nard made Provincial, he demanded Fathers Hecker and Wal- 
worth as his subjects, and they were given to him. 

A letter from Father Hecker announces his departure for New 
York as fixed for some time in October, 1850; but delays oc- 
curred, and the following is an extract from one to his mother, 
dated January 17, 185 1 ; it says that the departure is fixed for 
some day the same month : 

** Oh ! may Almighty God prosper our voyage, and may His 
sweet and blessed Mother be our guide and protector on the 
stormy sea. And may my arrival in America be for the good 
of many souls who are still wandering out of the one flock and 
away from the one shepherd ! I hope that to no one will it be of 
more consolation and benefit than to you, my dearest mother." 

The ship was named the Helvetia and sailed from Havre the 
27th of January, the captain being a genuine down-east Yankee, 
and the crew a mixed assortment of English and American sail- 
ors. Father Bernard's party consisted of Fathers Walworth, 
Hecker, Landtsheer, Kittell, Dold, and Giesen, and the students 
Hellemans, Miiller, and Wirth, the American fathers having come 
to Havre from London by way of Dover, Calais, and Paris. 
The weather was unfavorable during nearly the entire voyage, 
the ship being driven back into tlie English Channel and forced 
to anchor in the Downs. They were beaten about for two weeks 
before they got fairly upon the Atlantic, and while crossing the 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 235 

Newfoundland banks were in danger from icebergs. Nearly all 
the party were more or less sea- sick, including Father Hecker. 
This did not prevent his attempting the conversion of the boat- 
swain, who seemed the only hopeful subject in the ship's com- 
pany. There were a hundred and thirty steerage passengers, 
emigrants for the most part from Protestant countries, though a 
party of Garibaldian refugees and a few equally wild Frenchmen 
enlivened the monotony of sea-Hfe by some bloody fights. There 
were but two cabin passengers besides the Redemptorists, and 
the former being confined to their staterooms by nearly continual 
sea-sickness, the cabin was turned into a '* floating convent," 
to borrow Father Dold's expression in a long letter descrip- 
tive of the voyage, given by Canon Claessens in his Life of 
Father Bernard, 

The wintry and stormy voyage had already tested the mission- 
aries' patience for some weeks, when Father Bernard informed the 
captain that he and his companions were going to make a novena 
to St Joseph to arrive at New York on or before his feast, March 
the 19th. *' St. Joseph will have to do his very prettiest to get 
us in," was the answer. And when the ship was still far to the 
east, being off the banks, and the weather quite unfavorable, and 
only three days left before the feast, the captain called out : " St. 
Joseph can't do it — give it up, Father Bernard." But the latter 
would still persevere ; and that night the wind changed. The 
Yankee ship now flew along at the rate of fourteen miles an hour. 
When the eve of St. Joseph's Day came they were wrapped in 
a dense fog, and the captain, dreading the nearness of the coast, 
hove to. When day dawned the fog lifted, and the ship was 
found to be off Long Branch, and a wrecked ship was seen on 
the shore; she had been driven there during the night. The 
pilot soon came aboard and they sailed through the Narrows and 
into the harbor of New York, having spent fifty-two days on the 
ocean. As they approached the city a little tug-boat was seen 
coming to' meet them. It bore George and John Hecker and 
Mr. McMaster, whose cordial greetings were the first welcome 
the young Redemptorists heard on their return to the New 
World. They were soon at their home in the convent in Third 
Street, and on the sixth of April following the first mission was 
opened in St. Joseph's Church, Washington Place, New York. 

Here is Dr. Brownson's greeting, from his home in Chelsea, 
Mass., received by Father Hecker soon after his arrival : 



234 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" My very dear friend, you cannot imagine what pleasure it 
gives me to learn of your arrival in New York. ... I want to see 
you much, very much. -You have much to tell me that it is 
needful that I should know, and I beg you to come to see me. 
Tell your superiors from me that your visit to me will be more 
than an act of charity to me personally, and that it is highly 
necessary — not merely as a matter of pleasure to us two — that 
we should meet; and tell them that I earnestly beg to have 
you come and spend a few days with me. I am sure that they 
will permit you to do so in furtherance of the work in which I 
as well as you are engaged, and I have a special reason for 
wishing to see you now. I would willingly visit you at New 
York or anywhere in the United States, but there is no place so 
appropriate as my own house. ... I am more indebted to you 
for having become a Catholic than to any other man under 
heaven, and while you supposed I was leading you to the 
church, it was you who led me there. I owe you a debt of 
gratitude I can never repay. . . . Come, if possible, and as soon 
as possible." 

At the Third Street house the new-comers found Father 
Augustine F. Hewit, a convert from the Episcopal Church, in 
which he had tarried for a few years on his way from Calvinism 
to the true religion. He had been a secular priest for a short time 
previous to entering the order. He was directed to join the newly- 
formed missionary band, and was destined to be more to Father 
Hecker than any other man, and to succeed him as superior of 
the Paulist community. 

After more than five years' absence Father Hecker thus finds 
himself in America, the land of his apostolate, a member of* a 
missionary community whose external vocation is the preaching 
of penance, and the conversion of sinful Catholics to a good 
life. A mission is a season of renewal of the religious life 
among the people of a parish. It is a course of spiritual ex- 
ercises in which the principles of religion are called forth and 
placed in more active control of men's conduct, and by means 
of which their emotional nature is stimulated to grief for sin, 
love of God, yearning for eternal happiness. The sermons and 
instructions are given twice, and sometimes oftener, each day, 
during the early mornings and in the evenings. These exercises 
arc conducted in the parish church, but not by the parish 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 235 

clergy. The people see among them the members of a religious 
order, men set apart, by the interior touch of the Holy Spirit 
and the public approval of the church, for this particular work — 
powerful preachers, confessors as indefatigable as they are pa- 
tient, priests full of masterful zeal, moving in disciplined accord 
together against vice. The call they address to the people is 
the peremptory one : '' Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand." Their words are given forth not from the usual 
pulpit, but from a platform at the communion railing, and in 
the presence of a high black cross set up in the sanctuary. 
They wear no surplice or stole while preaching, the only in- 
signia of their office being a crucifix on their breasts. The 
bishop usually extends to them greater powers than are com- 
monly given for reconciling sinners who have incurred eccle- 
siastical censures. The Holy See empowers them to extend the 
most abundant spiritual favors in its gift in the form of indul- 
gences, and the pastor informs the congregation several Sundays 
beforehand that he expects the entire Catholic population of 
his parish to attend the mission and receive the sacraments. 

To be absorbed in such labors as above described was not 
the primary object of Father Hecker's vocation, but he accepted 
his place joyfully as chosen by the evident will of God. The 
missionary life was never in his eyes what the reader might 
surmise it to be — a mere interlude in his career, a period of 
patient waiting. Such is far from having been the case. The 
missions are eminent works of Catholic zeal, and there is not 
any vocation known to the active ministry which may not com- 
mute with them on equal terms. Human nature has never felt 
influences more deeply religious than those set at work by mis- 
sions, recalhng the effects of the preaching of the Apostles them- 
selves. Remorse of conscience, loathing for sin, terror at the 
divine wrath, confidence in God, sympathy for our crucified 
Saviour, the ecstatic joy of the new-found divine friendship, utter 
contempt for the maxims of the world, iron determination to 
love God to the end — these are the sentiments which, by the 
preaching of missions, are made to dominate entire parishes in a 
degree simply marvellous. Nor can it be said that these dispo- 
sitions are fleeting. Allowing for exceptions, especially in large 
cities, their permanency is often an evidence of the solidity of 
the motives which inspired them, as well as of the supernatural 
graces which gave them life. Every missionary will bear wit- 



236 The Life of Father Hecker. 

ncss, as Father Hecker often did, that he has never assisted at 
a mission in which he was not profoundly impressed by the 
tears of hardened sinners. Every parish priest, however much 
he may regret the backsHding of some, will testify to the valu- 
able results of missions among his people : the quickening of 
faith and the revival of supernatural motives, drunkards re- 
formed, restitutions made, lust cleansed away, families united, 
the church thronged with worshippers, saloons deserted. Father 
Hecker never thought that all this was too dearly bought by 
the dreary toil of the confessional, the discomforts of for ever 
changing residences and living in strange places,_ nor even by 
the growing nerve- troubles which the fathers are often subject 
to, from brains superheated over and over again in the burn- 
ing fires of mission preaching. Father Hecker did not think 
the privileges of such a Hfe too dearly bought even by the 
postponement of his proper apostolate, and was ever glad of his 
labors as a missionary. 

They schooled him in public speaking. In his antecedents 
there was abundant reason for diffidence, and he knew full well 
that what was good enough language for an harangue to the 
Seventh Ward Democracy would be ridiculous in a Catholic 
pulpit. Nor was he deceived into the notion of his ability to 
preach because he could influence men in private. Conversa- 
tion is not public speaking, and the defects of grammar, or any 
other such defects, if pardoned in an earnest and honest man 
in private interchange of views, if committed on the pubHc 
rostrum are unpardonable and are usually fatal Father Hecker 
found in the incessant practice of the missionary platform, and 
in the assistance of his present superior, exactly what he need- 
ed by way of preparation. Besides the mission sermon at 
night — the great sermon, as it was called — there is a short doc- 
trinal instruction at the same service and a moral one on the 
sacraments or commandments in the morning. These became 
his share of the mission preaching, and the school in which 
he acquired that direct, convincing, and popular manner of dis- 
course for which he was afterwards renowned as a lecturer. 

We find the following among the memoranda : 

" When I came over to America with Fathers Bernard and 
Walworth, Bernard wanted to know what I could do. Well, by 
that time I had given up all hopes of any public career. I 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 237 

couldn't preach. My memory and intellectual faculties generally 
were so influenced by my interior state that theology was out 
of the question. The lights that God had given me about the 
future state of reUgion in this country were still clear as ever, 
but I thought that I should have to confine myself to impart- 
ing them to particular and individual souls whom the provi- 
dence of God should throw in my way ; for I was persuaded 
that the Redemptorist community was unfitted for the future 
work I had caught a glimpse of, and I was entirely contented 
to live and die a Redemptorist, and was quite certain that 
I should. So, when Bernard asked me what I could do, I 
told him to get me some place as chaplain of a prison or 
public institution of charity, as that was about all that I was 
capable of. But he thought difierently. 

** My first instructions on the missions were almost word for 
word given me by Bernard. I didn't seem to have a single 
thought of my own." 

To preach, whether to Catholics or to non- Catholics, one 
must learn how, and Father Hecker with all his gifts knew 
that this gift seldom comes from above except by way of re- 
ward for steady labor. The opportunity of the missions, and 
of Father Bernard as a guide, was eagerly accepted in lieu of 
the prison chaplaincy. 

The missions also enabled him to know the Catholic people. 
The non-Catholics he already knew from vivid recollection of his 
own former state and from that of his early surroundings; 
Brook Farm and Fruitlands had completed his knowledge of the 
outside world ; but the Redemptorist novitiate and studentate 
and his sojourn in England did not give him a similar knowl- 
edge of the Catholic people, priesthood, and hierarchy. To the 
average looker-on Catholicity is what Catholics are, and Catholics 
in America viewed from a standpoint of morality were then and 
still are a very mixed population. Why the fruits are worse 
than the tree is a sore perplexity even to expert controversialists, 
and Father Hecker had need to equip himself well for meeting 
that difficulty, a patent one in the rushing tide of stricken im- 
migrants then pouring into America. The missions are an un- 
equalled school for learning men. All men and women in a 
parish are made known to the missionary, for they walk or 
stumble through his very soul. 



238 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Nor can one fail to see the use of missions as an evidence 
to the non-Catholic public itself of the supernatural power of 
Catholicity over men's lives. To practical people hke Americans 
there is no oral or written evidence of the true religion so vaHd 
as the spectacle of its power to change bad men into good ones. 
Such a people will accept arguments from history and from 
Scripture, but those of a moral kind they demand; they must 
see the theories at work. A mission is a microcosm of the 
church as a moral force. It shows a powerful grasp of human 
nature and an easy supremacy over it. It is an energetic, 
calm, and clean-sweeping influence for goody bold in its 
choice of the most subHme truths of supernatural religion as the 
sole motives of repentance. And it uniformly achieves so com- 
plete a victory over the best-entrenched vices that non-Catholic 
prejudice is invariably shaken at the spectacle. And in Anerica 
the pioneer work of the apostolate must be to remove prejudice. 
The character of the men who conduct these exercises, their 
courage, intelligence, devptedness, discipline, and ready command 
of the people ; the indiscriminate humanity which rushes to hear 
them, to pray, to confess their sins, to listen with mute atten- 
tion — long before day- break and in the hours of rest after work 
— all regardless of social differences or of moral ones, soon be- 
come well known to the public and generally excite comment 
in the press. All this contributes to prepare non- Catholics to 
hear from the same teachers the invitation which our Lord in- 
tended in saying : '' Other sheep I have which are not of this 
fold ; them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice, 
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." 

Furthermore, it was necessary that Father Hecker should be 
made personally known to the bishops and priests of the coun- 
try. The time was coming when he would have a public cause 
to advance, and their approval is a necessary sign of divine 
favor. Now, the missionary is closely studied by them and soon 
is intimately known, for there are too many things in common 
between priests but that they can readily test each other. 
Before the Paulist community had been organized, Father Hecker 
had been the guest of the most prominent clergymen of the 
entire United States, and of many even in the British Provinces, 
and was a well-known man throughout the Catholic community. 
Meantime the humiliations of his study-time had been quickly 
recovered from, if they had ever been a real hindrance to public 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 239 

effort, and we find no sign of protest on his part or of request 
to be let off from giving instructions beyond his answer to 
Father Bernard as above recorded. As he loved his vows as a 
Redemptorist, so he loved the work of the missions, because they 
were God's will for him; because they are a work of the highest 
order of good for souls ; because the reputation of Catholicity is 
always raised in a community by a mission, and a good name is 
necessary for a controversial standing; because in them he 
daily learned more of men and of the means to win them ; and 
because the members of the divine order of the episcopate and 
secular priesthood must be well known by him and he well 
known to them before any extensive work could b^ done among 
non- Catholics; and the missionary becomes a familiar friend 
everywhere he goes. Hence controversial sermons were some- 
times preached during the missions, lectures of the same sort 
given after them, and during their continuance many converts 
received into the church. Father Hecker, as we have tried to 
show the reader, was a very observant nature, always learning 
lessons from life, and ready to try his 'prentice hand on what 
material offered in the way of converting Protestants at every 
opportunity public and private. 

Nevertheless, the missions could not be made the ordinary 
channel of direct influences for turning sceptics and Protestants 
to the true religion. The attempt to make them so, involving, 
as it does, a notable interspersion of controversial sermons, has 
never been tried by the Redemptorist or Paulist Fathers to 
our knowledge, and when done by others has resulted in not 
enough of controversy for making solid converts, and too little 
penitential preaching for the proper reformation of hard sinners 
among CathoHcs. Father Hecker fully appreciated this. He 
threw himself into the mission work just as it was with the 
utmost ardor, and learning from Father Bernard how to prepare 
the matter for the morning and evening instructions, his natural 
gifts, together with hints and suggestions from his brethren, 
supplied him with the best possible manner of giving them. 
The writer has often served on missions in parishes where 
Father Bernard's new-formed band had preached in former 
years, and the testimony is uhiversal that as a doctrinal and 
moral instructor Father Hecker was unequalled among mis- 
sionaries. He was so irank, so clear, so lively, so impressible, 
and, in a certain way, so humorous, that he carried the people 



240 The Life of Father Hecker. 

away with him. And he carried them all, high and low, 
learned and simple. With persons of education his homely 
words did not break the charm, nor did his simple but ex- 
tremely well chosen illustrations do so — all taken, as they were, 
from common life or the lives and writings of the saints. He 
never preached the great sermons and never aspired to do it. 
He never sought to arouse terror or to be pathetic. He 
always reasoned and instructed. In truth, he was not com- 
petent to deal adequately with such subjects as Death, Judg- 
ment, and Hell — that is to say, as they are preached at mis- 
sions, for the emotions have honest rights on ^uch occasions, 
and Father Hecker acknowledged his deficiency in emotional 
oratory. But, to tell you the qualities of true sorrow, or to 
show you how to make a true confession, to picture the man- 
liness of virtue and the dignity of the Christian state, he was 
unsurpassed. And the general effect remaining after his in- 
structions was always a bright understanding of just what to do 
for a good life, with many happy examples to aid the memory, 
together with a strong personal affection for the holy man 
who showed religion to be a most happy as well as most 
reasonable service of God, To his penitents in the confessional 
he was ever most kind and patient. '' No school of perfection," 
he once said, '' can equal the self-denial necessary to hear 
confessions well." God is now rewarding him, we trust, for 
the cheerful, often even bantering, words of encouragement he 
gave to the multitudes of poor sinners who knelt at his 
feet during the toilsome years he spent on the missions; 
and for the enlightenment and encouragement of his big-hearted 
influence, and for his trumpet notes of hope in the early morn- 
ing instructions. After the hard pounding of the night sermons 
it is always sought to pick the sinner up out of the dust and 
to hearten him by the early instructions, as well as to guide 
him to the precise methods and means of reform and of a good 
life for the future. As to the sacrament of penance, the say- 
ing of St. Alphonsus is a maxim with us all : " Be a Hon in 
the pulpit, but a lamb in the confessional. '^ 

The reader must indulge us in thus dwelling so long on the 
Catholic missions, for we are inclined to say many words of 
praise of so lovely a life, in which the same men sow and reap 
a great harvest in the same week, expend their vitality in 
preaching the word and administering the sacraments and com- 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 241 

forting sinners who are wholly broken down with the truest con- 
trition. 

In 185 1 the American Redemptorists had before them a mis- 
sionary field almost untouched. Public retreats had been given 
from time to time in the United States by Jesuits and others, 
but the mission opened at St. Joseph's Church, New York City, 
on Passion Sunday, 185 1, was the first mission of a regular 
series carried on systematically by a body of men especially de- 
voted to the vocation. The merit of inaugurating them is chiefly 
due to Father Bernard, who had no hesitation in getting to 
work with his three American fathers ; though Father Joseph 
Miiller, rector of the Third Street convent, and Rev. Joseph 
McCarron, the rector of St. Joseph's Church, had something 
to do in arranging the details and in facilitating the work. 
Several Redemptorists from Third Street helped in the confes- 
sionals.* 

We have space for only the following extracts from the brief 
record of the missions, preserved by the fathers. They illustrate 
how earnestly Father Hecker worked. In the record of the 
second mission at Loretto, Pa., we find this : 

The instructions and Rosary were generally given by Father 
Hecker, who received from the people the name of *' Father 
Mary." . . . During the first few days the people did not attend 
well ; but after Father Hecker had gone through the village and 
among a clique of young men who were indifferent and dis- 
affected to the clergy, and the evil geniuses of the place, and 
after some fervent exhortations had been made to the people, 
they flocked to the mission and crowded the church. 

At Johnstown, Pa. : After two or three days a man happened 
to die on the railroad, and all the men at that station, per- 
haps a hundred in number, accompanied the corpse to the 
church. Father Hecker seized the opportunity to address them 
and to give them a mission ferveroso. And the next day he 
went on horseback, accompanied by the pastor, Father Mullen 
(since Bishop of Erie), to several stations and addressed the 
men, inviting them to attend the mission. The result was suc- 

•* Observers of coincidences will be interested to notice the arrival of the missionaries in 
America on St. Joseph's day, under the Provincial Bernard Joseph Hafkenscheid, to open 
their first mission at St. Joseph's Church, the pastor being Joseph McCarron, the mission 
having been negotiated by Joseph Miiller, the rector of the Third Street convent. Father 
Hecker had a special devotion for St, Joseph. 



242 The Life of Father Hecker. 

cessful. Procession after procession marched in, filling the church, 
and numbers of them stayed all day, lying on the grass about the 
church. . . . Father Hecker called out a noted politician, who 
had not been to the sacraments for many years until the mis- 
sion, to receive the scapular as an example, and the good man 
did not fail to receive a plentiful supply of holy water from 
the vigorous arm of the said father. 

The following entry in the record under date of February, 
1852, made after a mission given in St Peter's Church, Troy^ 
N. Y., will be of interest to missionaries, and to others who 
are observant of their methods : *' At Youngstown, Pa., (the 
preceding December) the experiment of preaching from a plat- 
form had been successfully tried and was repeated here, as at 
other missions since (Youngstown). On the platform a large 
black cross, some ten feet or more in height, was erected, from 
the arms of which a white muslin cloth was suspended. This 
use of cross and platform has thus been regularly introduced 
into the missions." Previously it had been the custom to erect 
a large cross out of doors in front of the church as one of the 
closing ceremonies of the mission. 

Fathers Hecker, Hewit, and Walworth, led by Father Bernard, 
made a unique band of missionaries, one, we think, hardly 
equalled since they yielded their place to others. Each was a 
man of marked individuality, whose distinct personaHty was by 
no means obscured by the strict conformity to rule evident in 
their behavior. Fathers Hewit and Walworth were orators, dif- 
fering much from each other, both full of power. Father Hecker 
was a born persuader of men, and could teach as a gift of nature, 
earnest in mind and manner, . His two companions saw him learn 
by hard work how so to modulate his voice and to manage it 
and his manner as to exactly suit himself to his duties as the 
instructor of the band, while they delivered finished discourses 
at the night services, many of them masterpieces of mission ora- 
tory. Their very poise and glance on the platform stilled the 
church, and their noble rhetoric clothed appeals to the intel- 
ligence and to the heart in most attractive garb. In Father 
Hecker you saw a man who wanted to persuade you because 
he was right and knew it, and because he was deeply inter- 
ested in your welfare. He sought no display, and yet held you 
fast to him by eye and car. He had no tricks to catch applause. 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 243 

for he had no vanity. He said what he Hked, for he was totally- 
devoid of diffidence or awkwardness, and his best aid was his 
invariable equipment of an earnest purpose. ** But I don't be- 
lieve," said Father Walworth to the writer, ** that Demosthenes 
ever worked through greater difficulties than Father Hecker in 
making himself a good public speaker." 

Father Bernard managed the missions for the first year, and 
dealt with the pastors as superior of the band, meanwhile 
devouring more than his share of the work in the confessional. 
The least experience shows that there can be Httle of the dis- 
cipline of the barracks order on the missions, and all the fathers 
must of necessity consult together, the superior leading in the 
observance of such community devotional customs as are pos- 
sible, and setting a good example in stooping to the burdens 
which all must bear. As to Father Bernard, the Americans 
could only admire and love him. In his own tongue a renown- 
ed orator, he yet never preached in English while with these 
three men unless on rare occasions, such as when one of them 
was prevented by sickness. From him they received the man- 
ner of giving missions handed down from St. Alphonsus, and 
they have transmitted the tradition to their spiritual children in 
all its integrity. 

Nearly two years passed of hard missionary campaigning under 
Father Bernard, when he was recalled to Europe, and Father Alex- 
ander Cvitcovicz took his place. His last name was seldom used, 
for the same evident reason as in his predecessor's case. Father 
Alexander was a Magyar, past the meridian of life, long accus- 
tomed to missions in Europe, learned, devout, kindly, and of a 
zeal which seemed to aspire at utter self-annihilation in the ser- 
vice of sinners. *' It was not unusual for Father Alexander," 
says Father Hewit in his memoir of Father Baker, '' to sit in his 
confessional for ten days in succession for fifteen or sixteen hours 
each day. He instructed the little children who were preparing 
for the sacraments, but never preached any of the great sermons. 
In his government of the fathers who were under him he was 
gentleness, consideration, and indulgence itself. In his ov/n life 
and example he presented a pattern of the most perfect religious 
virtue, in its most attractive form, without constraint, austerity, 
or moroseness, and yet without relaxation from the most ascetic 
principles. He was a most thoroughly accompHshed and learned 
man in many branches of secular and sacred science and in the 



244 1^^^ ^^f^ ^f F^i^^^ Hecker. 

fine arts ; and in the German language, which was as familiar to 
him as his native language, he was among the best preachers of 
his order. . . . We went through several long and hard mission- 
ary campaigns under his direction, until at last we left him, in 
the year 1854, in the convent at New Orleans, worn out with 
labor, to exchange his arduous missionary work for the lighter 
tiuties of the parish." 

Father Walworth now became superior, and the missions went 
on in the same spirit and with the same success as before. In 
the record of the one given at the church of Our Lady, Star of 
the Sea, Brooklyn, we find the following entry: -"Missionaries, 
Fathers Walworth, Hecker, Hewit, and George Deshon (late lieu- 
tenant Ordnance, U. S. A., a convert from the Episcopal Church. 
This was his first mission)." Father Deshon had been ordained 
not long before, and soon began to share the instructions with 
Father Hecker. This was in February, 1856, and in November 
of the same year, at St. Patrick's Mission, Washington, D. C, they 
were joined by Father Francis A. Baker, ordained in the preced- 
ing September, a distinguished convert from the Episcopal minis- 
try of the city of Baltimore. Much we would say of him, his 
eloquence and his very amiable traits of character, but all this 
and more is well said by Father Hewit, in his memoir of Father 
Baker, published after the latter's death in 1865 (Catholic Publi- 
cation Society Co.) This increase of members allowed a division 
of the band for smaller sized missions. 

In our judgment those men were a band of missionaries the 
like of whom have not served the great cause among the Eng- 
lish-speaking races these recent generations. Fathers Walworth, 
Hewit, and Deshon have survived their companions of those early 
days, and may they long remain with us, calm and beautiful and 
devout old veterans of the divine warfare of peace ! 

Father Hecker gave several retreats to religious communities 
of men and of women during the six or seven years we are 
considering, devoting for the purpose portions of the summer 
months usually unoccupied by missions. Copies of notes of his 
conferences, taken down by some of his hearers, are in our pos- 
session and may aid us further on in giving the reader a view 
of his spiritual doctrine. 

The following extract from the Roman statement summarizes 
what we have been telling in this chapter, and introduces the 
reader to Father Hecker's first missionary activity as a writer: 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 245 

"■ My superiors sent me back to the United States, and on 
my return being asked by my immediate superior in what way 
he could best employ me, my reply was, in taking care of the 
sick, the poor, and the prisoners. The stupidity which still 
reigned over my intellectual faculties, and the helplessness of my 
will, and my sympathy with those classes led me to choose such 
a sphere of action as most suitable to my then condition. And 
although the conversion of the non-Catholics of my fellow-coun- 
trymen was ever before my mind, yet God left me in ignorance 
how this was to be accomplished. Such strong and deep im- 
pulses, and so vast in their reach, took possession of my soul on 
my return to the United States in regard to the conversion of 
the American people, that on manifesting my interior to one of 
the most spiritually enlightened and experienced fathers of the 
congregation on the subject to obtain his direction, he bade me 
not to resist these interior movements, they came from God ; 
and that God would yet employ me in accordance with them. 
Such were his words. After a few weeks in the United States 
the work of the missions began. My principal duties on these 
were to give public instructions and hear confessions, and up to 
this time (1858) these missionary labors have occupied me almost 
exclusively. 

"The blessings of God upon our missions were most evident 
and most abundant and my share in them most consoling, as 
usually the most abandoned sinners fell to my lot. But holy and 
important as the exercises of the missions among Catholics are, 
still this work did not correspond to my interior attrait, and 
though exhausted and frequently made ill from excessive fatigue 
in these duties, yet my ardent and constant desire to do some- 
thing for my non- Catholic countrymen led me to take up my 
pen. That took place as follows : One day alone in my cell 
the thought suddenly struck me how great were my privileges 
and my joy since my becoming a Catholic, and how great were 
my troubles and agony of soul before this event ! Alas ! how 
many of my former friends and acquaintances, how many of the 
great body of the American people were in the same most pain- 
ful position. Cannot something be done to lead them to the 
knowledge of the truth ? Perhaps if the way that divine Provi- 
dence had led me to the church was shown to them many of 
them might in this way be led also to see the truth. This 
thought, and with it the hope of inducing young men to enter 



246 The Life of Father Hecker. 

into religious orders, produced in a few months from my pen a 
book entitled Questions of the Soul. The main features of this 
book are the proofs that the Sacraments of the Catholic Church 
satisfy fully all the wants of the heart. . . . 

'' But the head was left to be yet converted ; this thought led me 
to write a second book, called Aspirations of Nature ; and which 
has for its aim to show that the truths of the Catholic faith an- 
swer completely to the demands of reason. My purpose in these 
two books was to explain the Catholic religion in such a manner 
as to reach and attract the minds of the non-CathoHcs of the 
American people. These books were regarded in my own secret 
thoughts as the test whether God had really given to me the grace 
and vocation to labor in a special manner for the conversion of 
these people. The first book, with God's grace, has been the 
means of many and signal conversions in the United States and 
England, and in a short period passed through three editions. 
The second has been published since my arrival in Rome. . . . 

" On an occasion of a public conference (discourse) given by 
me before an audience, a great part of which was not Catholic, the 
matter and manner of which was taken from my second book, 
my fellow-missionaries were present ; and they as well as myself 
regarded this as a test whether my views and sentiments were 
adapted to reach and convince the understanding and hearts of 
this class of people, or were the mere illusions of fancy. Hith- 
erto my fellow missionaries had shown but little sympathy with 
my thoughts on these points, but at the close of the conference 
they were of one mind that my vocation was evidently to work 
in the direction of the conversion of the non-Catholics, and they 
spoke of such a work with conviction and enthusiasm." 

This last event occurred in St. Patrick's Church, Norfolk, 
Va., in April, 1856, and is thus mentioned by Father Hewit in 
the record of the mission : " Father Hecker closed with an ex- 
tremely eloquent and popular lecture on ' Popular Objections 
to Catholicity.' " 

The Questions of the Soul was well named, for it under- 
takes to show how the cravings of man for divine union 
may be satisfied. It does this by discussing the problem of 
human destiny, affirming the need of God for the soul's light 
and for its virtue, proving this by arguments drawn from the 
instincts, faculties, and achievements of man. The sense of want 



A Redemptorist Missioiiary. 247 

in man is the universal argument for his need of more than 
human fruition, and in the moral order is the irrefragable proof 
of both his own dignity and his incapacity to make' himself 
worthy of it. Father Hecker urged in this book that man is 
born to be more than equal to himself — an evident proof of the 
need of a superhuman or supernatural religion. Eleven chap- 
ters, making one-third of the volume, are devoted to showing 
this, and include the author's own itinerarium from his first con- 
sciousness of the supreme question of the soul until its final 
answer in the Catholic Church, embracing short accounts of the 
Brook Farm and Fruitlands communities, and mention of other 
such abortive attempts at solution. Three chapters then affirm 
and briefly develop the claim of Christ to be the entire fulfil- 
ment of the soul's need for God, with the Catholic Church as 
his chosen means and instrument. These are entitled respec- 
tively, ''The Model Man," ''The Model Life," and "The Idea 
of the Church." Three more chapters discuss Protestantism, 
stating its commonest doctrines and citing its most competent 
witnesses in proof of its total and often admitted inadequacy to 
lead man to his destiny. Bringing the reader back to the 
Church, the fourteen last chapters fully develop her claims, deal- 
ing mostly with known facts and public institutions, and citing 
largely the testimony of non- Catholic writers. 

It is something like the inductive method to infer the ex- 
istence of a food from that of an admitted appetite, as also to 
learn the kind of food from the nature of the organs provided 
by nature for its reception and digestion. So the longings of 
man's moral nature, Father Hecker felt, when fairly under- 
stood, must lead to the knowledge of what he wants for their 
satisfaction — the Infinite Good — and that by a process of reason- 
ing something equivalent to the scientific. Such is the state- 
ment of his case, embracing with its argument the introductory 
chapters. The inquiry then extends to the claimants in the 
religious world, not simply as to which is biblically authentic 
or historically so, but rather as to which religion claims to 
satisfy the entire human want of God and makes the claim 
good as an actual fact. It is wonderful how this line of argu- 
ment simpHfies controversy, and no less wonderful to find how 
easily the victory is won by the Catholic claim. The reader 
will also notice how consistent all this is with Father Hecker's 
own experience from the beginning. 



548 The Life of Father Hecker. 



The literary faults of the book are not a few ; for if the 
argument is compact, its details seem to have been hastily- 
snatched up and put together, or perhaps the occupations of 
the missions prevented revision and consultation. There is a 
large surplusage of quotations from poets, many of them 
obscure, and worthy of praise rather as didactic writers than 
as poets ; yet every word quoted bears on the point under 
discussion. To one who has labored in preparing sermons, each 
chapter looks like the cuUings of the preacher's commonplace 
book set in order for memorizing ; and very many sentences 
are rhetorically faulty. But, in spite of all these defects, the 
book is a powerful one, and nothing is found to hurt clearness 
or strength of expression. What we have criticised are only 
bits of bark left clinging to the close-jointed but rough-hewn 
frame- work. 

The Questions of the Soicl was got out by the Appletons, 
and was at the time of its publication a great success, and 
still remains so. The reason is because the author takes 
nothing for granted, propounds difficulties common to all non- 
Catholics, sceptics as well as professing Protestants, and offers 
solutions verifiable by inspection of every- day CathoHcity and 
by evidences right at hand. Catholicity is the true rehgion, 
because it alone unites men to God in the fulness of union, 
supernatural and integral in inner and outer life — a union de- 
manded by the most resistless cravings of human nature : such 
is the thesis. There can be little doubt that prior to this 
book there was nothing like its argument current in English 
literature ; a short and extremely instructive account by 
Frederick Lucas of his conversion from Quakerism is the only 
exception known to us, and that but partially resembles it, is 
quite brief, and has long since gone out of print. 

The Aspirations of Nature deals with intellectual difficulties 
in the same manner as the Questions of the Soul does with the 
moral ones. The greatest possible emphasis is laid upon the 
two-fold truth that man's intellectual nature is infallible in its 
rightful domain, and that that domain is too narrow for its own 
activity. The validity of human reason as far as it goes, and its 
failure to go far enough for man's intellectual needs, are the 
two theses of the book. They are well and thoroughly proved ; 
and no one can deny the urgent need of discussing them : the 
dignity of human nature and the necessity of revelation. Like 



A Redemptorist Missionary. 249 

Father Hecker's first book, the Aspirations of Nature is good 
for all non-Catholics, because in proving the dignity of man's 
reason Protestants are brought face to face with their funda- 
mental error of total depravity ; enough for their case surely. 
If they take refuge in the mitigations of modern Protestant be- 
liefs, they nearly always go to the extreme of asserting the 
entire sufficiency of the human intellect, and are here met by 
the argument for the necessity of revelation. 

An extremely valuable collection of the confessions of heathen 
and infidel philosophers as to the insufficiency of reason is found 
in this book, as well as a full set of quotations from Protestant 
representative authorities on the subject of total depravity. Over 
against these the Catholic doctrine of reason and revelation is 
brought out clearly. The study of the book would be a valu- 
able preparation for the exposition of the claims of the Catholic 
Church to' be the reHgion of humanity, natural and regenerate — 
the intellectual religion. 

As might be expected from one who had such an aversion 
for Calvinism, the view of human nature taken by the author is 
what some would call optimistic, and the tone with regard to 
the religious honesty of non -Catholic Americans extremely hope- 
ful. Perhaps herein was Dr. Brownson's reason for an adverse, 
or almost adverse, criticism on the book in his Review. He had 
given the Qitestions of the So7il a thoroughly flattering recep- 
tion, and now says many things in praise of the Aspirations 
of Nature^ praising especially the chapter on individuality. 
But yet he dreads that the book will be misunderstood ; 
he has no such lively hopes as the author ; he trusts he is not 
running along with the eccentricities of theologians rather than 
with their common teaching; fears that he takes the possible 
powers of nature and such as are rarely seen in actual life as 
the common rule ; dreads, again, that Transcendentalists will be 
encouraged by it; and more to the same effect. But Father 
Hecker, before leaving for Europe in 1857, had submitted the 
manuscript to Archbishop Kenrick and received his approval ; 
nor did Brownson's unfavorable notice ruffle the ancient friend- 
ship between them. 

The Aspirations of Nature was put through the press by 
George Ripley, at that time Hterary editor of the New York 
Tribune^ Father Hecker having gone to Rome on the mission 
which ended in the establishment of his new community. Mr. 



250 



The Life of Father Hecker, 



McMaster had assisted him similarly with the Questions of the 
Soul. The second book sold well, as the first had done, and 
has had several editions. It is not so hot and eager in spirit 
as the Questions of the Soul, but it presses its arguments 
earnestly enough on the reader's attention. It is free from the 
literary faults named in connection with its predecessor, reads 
smoothly, and has very many powerful passages and some elo- 
quent ones. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

SEPARATION FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS. 

THE events which led to the separation of the band of Ameri- 
can missionaries from the Redemptorist community took 
place in the spring and summer of 1857. A misunderstanding 
arose about the founding of a new house in Newark, N. J., or 
in New York City, which should be the headquarters for the 
English-speaking Fathers and become the centre of attraction for 
American subjects, and in which English should be the lan- 
guage in common use. Application had been made by Bishop 
Bay ley, and afterwards by Archbishop Hughes, for such a 
foundation, but superiors, both in the United States and in Rome 
— the latter dependent on letter- writing for understanding the 
difficulties which arose — became suspicious of the aims of the 
American Fathers and of the spirit which actuated them. To 
establish their loyalty and to explain the necessity for the new 
foundation, the missionary Fathers believed that one of their 
number should go to Rome and lay the matter in person be- 
fore the General or Rector Major of the order. The choice fell 
on Father Hecker, who sailed on August 5, 1857, arrived in 
Rome the 26th, and was expelled from the Congregation of the 
Most Holy Redeemer on Sunday, the 29th of the same month, 
the General deeming his coming to Rome to be a violation of 
the vows of obedience and poverty. 

The grounds of his expulsion were then examined by the 
Propaganda, from which the case passed to the Holy Father, 
who sought the decision of the Congregation of Bishops and 
Regulars. Pius IX. gave his judgment as a result of the examin- 
ation made by the last-named Congregation ; but he had made 
a personal study of all the evidence, and had given private 
audiences to both the General and Father Hecker. It was de- 
cided that all the American Fathers associated in the missionary 
band should be dispensed from their vows as Redemptorists, 
including Father Hecker, who was looked upon and treated by 
the decree as if he were still as much a member of the Congre- 
gation as the others, his expulsion being ignored. This con- 
clusion was arrived at only after seven months of deliberation, 
and was dated the 6th of March, 1858. The decree, which will 
be given entire in this chapter, contemplates the continued activ- 



252 The Life of Father Hecker. 

ity of the Fathers as missionaries, subject to the authority of 
the American bishops ; their formation into a separate society 
was taken for granted. Such is a brief statement of the entire 
case. If the reader will allow it to stand as a summary, what 
follows will serve to fill in the outline and complete a more 
detailed view. 

And at the outset let it be fully understood that none of 
the Fathers desired separation from the order or had the 
faintest notion of its possibility as the outcome of the mis- 
understanding. One of the first letters of Father Hecker from 
Rome utters the passionate cry, " They have driven me out of 
the home of my heart and love." We have repeatedly heard 
him affirm that he never had so much as a temptation against 
his vows as a Redemptorist. Bat in saying this we do not 
mean to lay blame on the Redemptorist superiors. In all that 
we have to say on this subject we must be understood as re- 
cognizing their purity of intention. Their motives were love of 
discipline and obedience, which they considered seriously en- 
dangered. They were persuaded that their action, though se- 
vere, was necessary for the good of the entire order. And this 
shows that the difficulty was a misunderstanding, for there is 
conclusive evidence of the loyalty of the American Fathers — of 
Father Hecker no less than the others ; as also of their fair 
fame as Redemptorists with both the superiors and brethren of 
the community up to the date of their disagreement. When 
P'ather Hecker left for Rome the Provincial gave him his writ- 
ten word that, although he disapproved of his journey, he bore 
witness to him as a good Redemptorist, full of zeal for souls ; 
and he added that up to that time his superiors had been en- 
tirely satisfied with him ; and to the paper containing this 
testimony the Provincial placed the official seal of the order. 
On the other side, a repeated and careful examination of Father 
Hecker's letters and memoranda reveals no accusation by him 
of moral fault against his Redemptorist superiors, but on the 
contrary many words of favorable explanation of their conduct. 
When the Rector Major, in the midst of his council, began, to 
Father Hecker's utter amazement, to read the sentence of ex- 
pulsion, he fell on his knees and received the blow with bowed 
head as a visitation of God. And when, again, after prostrating 
himself before the Blessed Sacrament and resigning himself to 
the Divine Will, he returned to the council and begged the Gen- 



Separation from the Redeinptorists. 253 

eral on his knees for a further consideration of his case, and 
was refused, he reports that the General affirmed that his sense 
of duty would not allow him to act otherwise than he had done, 
and that he by no means meant to condemn Father Hecker in 
the court of conscience, but only to exercise jurisdiction over 
his external conduct. 

In truth the trouble arose mainly from the very great differ- 
ence between the character of the American Fathers and that of 
their superiors in the order. It is nothing new or strange, to 
borrow Father Hewit's thoughts as expressed in his memoir of 
Father Baker, that men whose characters are cast in a different 
mould should have different views, and should, with the most con- 
scientious intentions, be unable to coincide in judgment or act in 
concert : 

'' There is room in the Catholic Church for every kind of re- 
hgious organization, suiting all the varieties of mind and char- 
acter and circumstance. If collisions and misunderstandings often 
come between those who have the same great end in view, this 
is the result of human infirmity, and only shows how imperfect 
and partial are human wisdom and human virtue." 

What Father Hewit adds of Father Baker's dispositions ap- 
plies as well to all the Fathers. In ceasing to be Redemptorists, 
they did not swerve from their original purpose in becoming reli- 
gious. None of them had grown discontented with his state or with 
his superiors. They were all in the full fervor of the devotional 
spirit of the community, and as missionaries were generously wear- 
ing out their lives in the toil and hardship of its peculiar voca- 
tion. But both parties became the instruments of a special 
providence, which made use of the wide diversities of tempera- 
ment existing among men, and set apart Father Hecker and 
his companions, after a season of severe trial, for a new aposto- 
late. They did not choose it for themselves. Father Hecker had 
aspirations, as we know, but he did not dream of reahzing them 
through any separation whatever. But Providence led the Holy 
See to change what had been a violent wrench into a peaceful 
division, exercising, in so doing, a divine authority accepted with 
equal obedience by all concerned. 

What Father Hewit further says of Father Baker applies ex- 
actly to Father Hecker : 

"For the Congregation in which he was trained to the reli- 



254 The Life of Father Hecker. 

gious and ecclesiastical state he always retained a sincere esteem 
and affection. He did not ask the Pope for a dispensation from 
his vows in order to be relieved from a burdensome obligation, 
but only on the condition that it seemed best to him to terminate 
the difficulty which had arisen that way. When the dispensation 
was granted he did not change his life for a more easy one. . . 
Let no one, therefore, who is disposed to yield to temptations 
against his vocation, and to abandon the religious state from 
weariness, tepidity, or any unworthy motive, think to find any 
encouragement in his example ; for his austere, self-denying, and 
arduous life will give him only rebuke, and not encouragement." 

After the expulsion the General begged Father Hecker to 
make the convent his home till he was suited elsewhere, and 
Father Hecker, hav^ing thanked him for his kindness and 
stayed there that night, took lodgings the following day in a quiet 
street near the Propaganda. During the seven months of his stay 
in Rome he frequently visited the General and his consultors, 
sometimes on business but at other times from courtesy and 
good feeling. 

He at once presented the testimonials intended for the Gen- 
eral to Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda, who ex- 
amined them in company with Archbishop Bedini, the Secretary 
of that Congregation. As may be imagined, the attitude of these 
prelates was at first one of extreme reserve. But every case gets 
a hearing in Rome, and that of this expelled rehgious, and there- 
fore suspended priest, could be no exception. A glance at the 
credentials, a short conversation with their bearer, a closer exam- 
ination of the man and of his claim, produced a favorable impres- 
sion and led to a determination to sift the matter thoroughly. 
The principal letters were from Archbishop Hughes and Bishop 
Bayley. The former spoke thus of Father Hecker : " I have 
great pleasure in recommending him as a laborious, edifying, 
zealous, and truly apostolic priest." 

Some of the letters were from prominent laymen of the City 
of New York, including one from Mr. McMaster, another from 
Dr. Brownson, and another from Dr. Ives ; in addition he had 
the words of praise of the Provincial in America already referred 
to. Finally he showed letters from each of the American Fathers, 
one of whom, Father Hewit, was a member of the Provincial 
Council, all joining themselves to Father Hecker as sharing the 
responsibility of his journey to Rome, and naming him as the 
representative of their cause. 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 255 

It is not our purpose to trace the progress of the investiga- 
tion through the Roman tribunals. We will but give such facts 
and such extracts from letters as throw light on Father Hecker's 
conduct during this great crisis. One might be curious to know 
something about the friends he made in Rome. The foremost 
of them was the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. 

" The impression that Cardinal Barnabo made upon me," he 
writes in one of his earliest letters, " was most unexpected ; he 
was so quick in his perceptions and penetration, so candid and 
confiding in speaking to me. He was more hke a father and 
friend ; and both the cardinal and the archbishop (Bedini) ex- 
pressed such warm sympathy in my behalf that it made me feel, 
. . . in a way I never felt before, the presence of God in those 
who are chosen as rulers in His Church." 

In another letter he says : 

"He (the cardinal) has been to me more than a friend; he is 
to me a father, a counsellor, a protector. No one enjoys so high 
a reputation in every regard in Rome as the cardinal. He gives 
me free access to him and confides in me." 

There is much evidence, too much to quote it all, that the 
cardinal was drawn to Father Hecker on account of his simplic- 
ity and openness of character, his frank manner, but especially 
for his bold, original views of the opportunity of religion among 
free peoples. Cardinal Barnabo was noted for his sturdy temper 
and was what is known as a hard hitter, though a generous oppo- 
nent as well as an earnest friend. He espoused Father Hecker's 
cause with much heartiness ; official intercourse soon developed 
into a close personal attachment, which lasted with unabated 
warmth till the strong old Roman was called to his reward. 

Father Hecker speaks in his letters of spending time with 
him, not only on business but in discussing questions of philoso- 
phy and religious controversy, and in talking over the whole 
American outlook. 

The cardinal became the American priest's advocate before 
the Pope, and also with the Congregation of Bishops and Regu- 
lars after the case reached that tribunal. '' When I heard him 
speak in my defence," he said in after times, " I thanked God 
that he was not against me, for he was a most imperious char- 
acter when aroused, and there seemed no resisting him." 



256' The Life of Father Hecker. 

Archbishop Bedini, the Secretary of the Propaganda, was an- 
other hearty friend. Our older readers will remember that he 
had paid a visit to America a few years before the time we are 
considering, and that his presence here was made the occasion 
for some of the more violent outbreaks of the Know-nothing ex- 
citement He knew our country personally, therefore, and was 
acquainted with very many of our clergy ; his assistance to the 
Roman Court in this case was of special value. He became so 
demonstrative in his friendship for Father Hecker that the Pope 
was amused at it, and Father Hecker relates in his letters home 
how the Holy Father rallied him about the warrnth of his advo- 
cacy of the American priest's cause, as did various members of 
the Pontifical court. 

At that time and for many years afterwards Doctor Bernard 
Smith, an Irish Benedictine monk, was Professor of Dogmatic 
Theology in the College of the Propaganda ; he is now the hon- 
ored abbot of the great BasiHca of St. Paul without- the- walls. 
How Father Hecker came to know the learned professor we 
have been unable to discover ; but both he and Monsignor Kirby, 
of the Irish College, became his firm friends and powerful advo- 
cates. Without Doctor Smith's advice, indeed, scarcely a step 
was taken in the case. 

An unexpected ally was found in Bishop Connolly, of St. 
John's, New Brunswick. He had been robbed on his way between 
Civita Vecchia and Rome, and that misfortune gave him a special 
claim to the regard of the Pope, with whom he soon became a 
favorite. The Holy Father admired in him that energy of char- 
acter and zeal for religion which distinguished him in after years as 
Archbishop of Halifax. On hearing of Father Hecker's case he 
studied it on account of sympathetic interest in the aspects of 
Catholicity in the United States, part of his diocese being at 
that time, we believe, in the State of Maine. How ardent his 
friendship for Father Hecker soon became is shown by his ex- 
clamation: ** I am ready to die for you, and I am going to tell 
the Pope so." He even offered to assist Father Hecker in pay- 
ing his personal expenses while in Rome. In a letter to the 
American Fathers of December 18 Father Hecker writes: 

" Another recent and providential event in our favor has 
been the friendship of Bishop Connolly, of St. John's, New Bruns- 
wick. By his extraordinary exertions and his warm friendship 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 257 

for us he has succeeded in giving us the vantage ground in all 
quarters where we were not in good favor. I told you in the 
last note that he had spoken to the Holy Father in favor of 
our cause, but I had no time to give you the substance of what 
Avas said. Bishop Connolly is a full-blooded Irishman, but, for- 
tunately for us, not implicated in any party views in our coun- 
try, and seeing that the Propaganda regarded our cause as its 
own and had identified itself with our success, ... it being 
friendly to us as missionaries, he exerted all his influence in 
our favor. His influence was not slight, for the Pope had con- 
ceived a great friendship for him, and heaped all sorts of honors 
on him. Well, he had a regular tussle with his Holiness about 
us and our cause, and when the Holy Father repeated some 
things said of me — against me, of course — he replied : * Your 
Holiness, I should not be at all surprised if some fine day you 
yourself would have to canonize one of these Yankee fellows.' 
In one word, he left nothing unsaid or undone with the Pope 
in our favor; and the Pope suggested to him obtaining dispen- 
sation of our vows and forming a new company. * They cannot 
expect me,' he said, ' to take the initiatory step ; this would be 
putting the cart before the horse. Let them do this, and pre- 
sent their plan to me, and if I find it good, it shall have my 
consent.' . . . The bishop has also seen and won over to our 
favor Monsignor Talbot, who said to him : ' The only way now 
of settling the difficulties is to give the American Fathers the 
liberty to form a new company fot" the American missions.' In 
addition, the bishop wrote a strong document in favor of our 
missions and of us, and presented it to Cardinal Barnabo, which 
will be handed in to the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, 
who have our affairs in hand. ... If this good bishop 
should come in your way, whether by writing or otherwise, you 
cannot be too grateful for what he has done for us. After Car- 
dinal Barnabo and Archbishop Bedini we owe more to him than 
to any one else. 

*' Wind and tide are now in our favor, and my plan is to 
keep quiet and stick close to the rudder to see that the ship 
keeps right." 

On his way home from Rome Bishop Connolly wrote the 
following letter to Father Hecker, dated at Marseilles, January 
20, 1858: 



258 The Life of Father Hecker. 

.. . *-! : . 

*' From the deep interest I feel in your concerns you will 
pardon my curiosity in wishing to have the earliest intelligence 
of your fate in the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. I 
could wish I were near you all the time, and have nothing else 
to attend to ; but you have got One more powerful than I at 
your right hand. Fix your hopes in Him and you will not be 
confounded. After having done everything on your part that 
unsleeping energy as well as prudence could suggest, you must 
take the issue, however unpalatable it may be, as the undoubted 
expression of God's will, aad act (as I am sure you will act) 
accordingly. . . . You must keep steadily in view the glori- 
ous principle for which you came to Rome, and which I am 
convinced is for the greater glory of God and the greater good 
of religion in America. If you can start as a religious body with 
the approbation of Rome, this would be the holiest and most 
auspicious consummation. ... Be guided at every step by 
the holy and enlightened men whose sympathies you have won 
and in whose hands you will be always safe : Cardinal Barnabo 
in primis, and after him Monsignor Bedini and Doctors Kirby 
and Smith. United with them at every step, failure is impos- 
sible — you must and you will succeed. ... I am sure that 
you know and feel this as well as I do (for we have been 
marvellously of the same way of thinking on nearly all points), 
but as I feel I must write to you, as it may be, perchance, of 
some consolation to you in your troubles, I thought it better to 
say it over again. ... If a letter or anything else from 
me could be of any service, I need not tell you that I am still 
on hand and only anxious to be employed. [Here follows his 
address in Paris and Liverpool.] With all good wishes for your 
success, and with the hope of hearing the happy tidings from 
your own hand before I leave Europe, I am. Reverend dear Sir, 

" Very faithfully yours in Christ, 

" t Thomas L. Connolly, 

'' Bishop of St. JohiLS, N. Br 

From what has been so far communicated to the reader, it 
will be seen that Father Hecker's case had the strength of 
friendship to assist it. But he was himself his best advocate. 
His traits of character were lovable, and the very incongruity 
of such a man forced to plead against the direst penalty known 
to a religious, was a singularly strong argument. His cheerful 
demeanor while fighting for his life ; his puzzling questions on 
social and philosophical points ; his mingled mysticism and prac- 
tical judgment ; his utterance of political sentiments which, as he 
truly said in one of his letters, if spoken by any one but an 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 259 

American would elicit instant reproof; his total lack of obse- 
quiousness united to entire submission to lawful authority, all 
helped to make for himself and his cause friends in every di- 
rection. 

The unanimous adhesion of the American Redemptorist mis- 
sionaries was a powerful element in his favor, and a priceless 
boon for his own consolation. He was continually in receipt of 
such words as these : " We all desire you to consider us fully 
identified with you and to act in our name." '* We have the 
utmost confidence in your discretion, and your conservative 
views are quite to our mind." His whole heart went out in 
response to these greetings. On October 24 he writes to the 
Fathers : 

" The contents of your note were what I had a right to ex- 
pect from you : sympathy, confidence, and reliance on Divine 
Providence. How much these trials will endear us to each 
other ! If we keep together as one man and regard only God, 
defeat is impossible. Do not forget to offer up continually 
prayers for me. How much I see the hand of Providence in 
all our difficulties ! And the end will, I trust, make it evi- 
dent as the sun." 

But where he placed his entire trust is shown by the fol- 
lowing, a part of the same letter : 

** Our affairs are in the hands of God. I hope no one will 
feel discouraged, nor fear for me. All that is needed to bring 
the interests of God to a successful issue is grace, grace, grace; 
and this is obtained by prayer. And if the American Fathers 
will only pray and get others to pray, and not let any one 
have the slightest reason to bring a word against them in our 
present crisis, God will be with us and help us, and Our Lady 
will take good care of us. So far no step taken in our past 
need be regretted. If it were to be done again it would have 
my consent. The blow given to me I have endeavored to re- 
ceive with humility and in view of God. It has not produced 
any trouble in my soul, nor made me waver in the slightest de- 
gree in my confidence in God or my duty towards Him. Let 
us not be impatient. God is with us and will lead us if we 
confide in Him." 



26o The Life of Father Hecker. 

During his stay in Rome he corresponded regularly with 
his brother George, whose ever-open purse paid all his ex- 
penses. We have also found a very long letter of loving friend- 
ship from Doctor Brownson, conveying the profoundest sympa- 
thy. This came during the most critical period of the case and 
gave much consolation. It called forth an answer equally 
affectionate. 

He received exceedingly sympathetic letters from Fathers de 
Held and de Buggenoms. The former was at the time rector 
of the house in Liege, and wrote a letter to Cardinal Barnabo, a 
copy of which has been preserved, which treats most favorably 
of Father Hecker's character and discusses his case at length, 
petitioning a decision which should reinstate him in the order. 

Late in November he sought an interview with Cardinal 
Reisach, holding him closely interested for two hours, conversing 
upon American rehgious prospects and quite winning his friend- 
ship. By means of such interviews, which, at Cardinal Barna- 
bo's suggestion, he sought with the chief prelates in Rome, he 
became widely known in the city, and the state of religion in 
America was made a common topic of conversation. 

The following introduces a singular phase in the case. It is 
from a letter written before the end of September, less than a 
month after his arrival : 

" My leisure moments are occupied in writing an article on 
the * Present Condition and Future Prospects of the Catholic 
Faith in the United States,' for the Civilta Cattolica. They 
have promised to translate and publish it." 

The Civilta is still a leading Catholic journal, the foremost 
exponent of the views of the Society of Jesus. At that time it 
was the official organ of Pius IX., who read all its articles in the 
proofs, and it went everywhere in Catholic circles. The editors 
became fast friends of Father Hecker, though we are not aware 
that they took sides in his case. His article was divided in the 
editing, and appeared in two successive numbers of the maga- 
zine. It attracted wide attention, being translated and printed 
in the chief Catholic periodicals of France, Belgium, and Ger- 
many, and published by Mr. McMaster in the Frcemaiis Jour- 
nal. In Rome it served a good purpose. To some its views 
were startling, but its tone was fresh and enlivening. It under- 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 261 

took to show that the freest nation in the world was the most 
inviting field for the Catholic propagandist. We suppose that the 
author's main purpose in writing was but to invite attention to 
America, yet he so affected public opinion in Rome as to ma- 
terially assist the adjustment of the difficulty pending before the 
high tribunals. Cardinal Barnabo was quite urgent with Father 
Hecker that he should write more of the same kind, but either 
his occupations or his expectation of an early return home hin- 
dered his doing so. As it was, he had caused himself and the 
American Fathers to be viewed by men generally through the 
medium of the great question of the relation of religion to the 
young Repubhc of the Western World. That topic was fortun- 
ate in having him for its exponent He was an object-lesson 
of the aspirations of enlightened Catholic Americans as well as 
an exalted type of Catholic missionary zeal. Very few men of 
discernment ever really knew Father Hecker but to admire him 
and to be ready to be persuaded by him of his life-thesis : that 
a free man tends to be a good Catholic, and a free nation is 
the most promising field for apostolic zeal. 

Soon after his arrival in Rome he made the acquaintance of 
George L. Brown, an American artist of some note, and a non- 
Catholic. He was an earnest man, and Father Hecker attacked 
him at once on the score of religion, and before December had re- 
ceived him into the Church. This event made quite a stir in Rome. 
The city was always full of artists and their patrons, and Mr. 
Brown's conversion, together with the articles in the Civilta, in- 
fluenced in Father Hecker's favor many persons whom he could 
not directly reach. This was especially the case with the Pope, to 
whose notice such matters were brought by Archbishop Bedini, 
his office enabling him to approach the Holy Father at short in- 
tervals. He exerted a similar influence on all the high officials of 
the Roman court. 

In spite of all this favor the usual delays attendant upon 
serious judicial investigations oppressed Father Hecker with the 
heavy dread of *' the law's delay," detaining him in Rome from 
the first week in September, 1857, when the case was opened in 
the Propaganda, till it was closed by the decision of the Con- 
gregation of Bishops and Regulars early in the following March. 
Nor was the ** insolence of office " quite absent. He was once 
heard to tell of his having been snubbed in the Pope's antecham- 
ber by some one in attendance, and often put aside till he was 



262 The Life of Father Hecker. 

vexed with many weary hours of waiting and by being compelled 
to repeatedly return. 

" I had to wait for three days," we read in the memoranda, 
*' and then was reproached and scolded by the monsignor in 
attendance for coming late. I had not come late but had been 
kept waiting outside, and I told him so. * You will see those hills 
of Albano move,' said^ I, ' before I move from my purpose to 
see the Holy Father.' When he saw my determination he chang- 
ed and gave me my desired audience." 

When events had taken the question out of the jurisdiction of 
the Redemptorist order and into the general court of the Cath- 
olic Church, its settlement was found to be difficult. The resto- 
ration of Father Hecker by a judicial decision would not, it is 
plain, have left him and his companions in that harmonious rela- 
tion so essential to their personal happiness and to their success 
as missionaries. It was then suggested that they should petition 
for a separate organisation under the Rule of St. Alphonsus ap- 
proved by Benedict XIV., acting directly subject to the Holy 
See, thus making two Redemptorist bodies in the United States, 
as is the case with various Franciscan communities. It was also 
suggested that the Cisalpine, or Neapolitan Redemptorists, at that 
time an independent congregation, would gladly take the Amer- 
ican Fathers under their jurisdiction. The alternative was what 
afterwards took place — the dispensation of the Fathers from their 
vows, in view of thfeir forming their own organization under direc- 
tion of the Bishops and the Holy See. A petition praying the 
Holy Father to give them either the Rule of Benedict XIV. in 
the sense above suggested, or their dispensations from the vows, 
was drawn up and forwarded by the Fathers remaining in Amer- 
ica, the dispensation being named as the last resort. Father 
Hecker's legal case not being decided, he was advised by Cardi- 
nal Barnabo to reserve his signature to this document for the 
present. It will be seen at a glance that the dispensation from 
the vows and an entirely new departure in community existence 
was more in accordance with his aspirations. But no aspiration 
was so strong in him as love of his brethren, and he was fully 
determined not to be separated from them if he could pre- 
vent it. 

Much delay was caused by waiting for further testimonials 
from American bishops confirmatory of the good character of the 
fathers and of the value of their labors as missionaries. Father 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 263 

Hecker, meantime, wrote many letters to his brethren discussing 
the alternatives in question. 

In one of October 24 he tells of a pilgrimage he made to 
Nocera, to the tomb of St. Alphonsus, bearing his brethren in his 
heart with him. He also visited the Redemptorist house there 
and in Naples, and was quite charmed with the fathers, who were 
entirely willing to receive the Americans into their organization, 
which, as the reader knows, was separate from that of the Gen- 
eral in Rome. Knowing the mind of his brethren, and deter- 
mined to take no step alone. Father Hecker would have been 
content with this arrangement had it seemed good to the Holy 
See. Meantime he tells how greatly he enjoyed his visit to No- 
cera, how he said Mass over the holy body of the founder, and 
adds : '* Ever since I feel more consoled and supported and con- 
fident." 

The following is from a joint letter of the American Fathers 
dated November 17 ; they prefer, in case Father Hecker is not 
reinstated, being separated from the order and made " immedi- 
ately dependent on the Holy See, or the Prefect of the Propa- 
ganda, rather than anything else ; . . . called, for instance, 
'Religious Missionaries of the Propaganda,' if the Holy Father 
would make us such. With the Rule of St. Alphonsus and the 
same missionary privileges we now enjoy, and our dear Father 
Hecker among us again, we should feel happy and safe. . . . 
But we wait for the words of the Holy See to indicate our 
course." 

His words to them are to the same effect: ''Our first effort 
should be directed to the securing our hopes through the Transal- 
pine Congregation [this means the regular Redemptorist order to 
which they then belonged]. ... If this is not successful, then to 
endeavor to accomplish our hopes through the Cisalpine [Neapoli- 
tan] Fathers, who will be heart and soul with us and grant all 
our best desires. Or, thirdly, to obtain permission to act as a 
band of missionaries in our country under the protection, for the 
present, of some bishop. . . . It is a consolation to me to see 
that our affairs are so far developed and known, and our views 
are so identical that you can act on your part, and write, with- 
out having to delay for information [from me]. You can easily 
imagine that it was no pleasant state for me to be in while in 
suspense about what would be the determination you would come 
to. Thank God and Our Lady, your recent letter set that all 



264 The Life of Father Hecker. 

aside ! The work now to be done is plain, and the greatest care 
and prudence is to be exercised not to commit any fault, or 
make any mistake which may be to us a source of regret after- 
wards." 

In another letter he says that Cardinal Barnabo spoke of the 
unpleasant relations likely to exist after his restoration to the 
order, and then continues : 

''The cardinal had a long conversation with me, and he sug- 
gested whether God might not desire of me a special work. I 
told him I would not think of this while the dismission was over 
my head. He said, * Of course not ; for if you are a manvais 
sujety as the General thinks, God will surely not use you for any 
special mission.'" The letter here details more of the exchange 
of views between the cardinal and Father Hecker, the latter as- 
tounded to hear from this direction suggestions so closely tally- 
ing with his own interior aspirations about the apostolic outlook 
in America. " But," continues the letter, '' you must well under- 
stand that I should not accept such a proposition for myself be- 
fore having asked the best counsel of men of God and received 
their unhesitating approval of its being God's will. There are 
holy men here, and I take counsel with them in every impor- 
tant step; and they are religious, so that they are good judges 
in such important matters. ... If God wishes to make use 
of us in such a design, and I can be assured of this on compe- 
tent authority y whatever it may cost, with His grace I will not 
shrink from it. I call competent authority the approbation of 
good and holy men, and one like the cardinal, who knows the 
country, knows all our affairs now, and has every quality of mind 
and heart to be a competent judge in this important matter. 
Though you have made xwt your plenipotentiary, yet this is an 
individual affair, one we did not contemplate, one of the highest 
import to our salvation and sanctification, and must depend on 
God and our individual conscience. 

"Even before making this proposition to you I asked advice 
from my spiritual director, and he approved of it. You may be 
confident that in every step which I take I endeavor to be ac- 
tuated by the spirit of God, and take every means to assure my- 
self of it, so that hereafter no scruple may trouble my conscience, 
and God's blessing be with me and you also." 



Separatioji from the Redemptorists. 265 

He writes thus towards the end of- September : '' The more 
I think of our difficulties the more I am inclined to beheve 
that they may have been permitted by a good God for the very 
purpose of a work of this kind. If wise and holy men say so, 
and we have the approbation of the Holy See, is it not a mis- 
sion offered to us by Divine Providence, and ought we not 
cheerfully to embrace it ? " 

And on October 5 : "I hope God has inspired you with 
some means of coming to my help. Indeed, it is a difficult po- 
sition, and the best I can do is to throw myself constantly on 
Divine Providence and be guided by Him. You will remember, 
and I hope, before this reaches you, will have answered my 
proposition in my last note, whether or not you would be 
willing to form an independent band of missionaries to be de- 
voted to the great wants of tlie country. I have consid- 
ered and reconsidered, and prayed and prayed, and in spite 
of my fears this seems to me the direction in which Diviite 
Providefice calls us. . . . With all the difficulties, dangers, 
and struggles that another [community] movement presents be- 
fore me, I feel more and more convinced that it zs this that 
Divine Providence asks of tcs. If we should act in concert 
its success cannot be doubted — success not only as regards 
our present kind of labors, but in a variety of other ways 
which are open to us in our new country. ... If you are 
prepared to move in this direction it would be best, and indeed 
necessary, not only to write to me your assent, but also a memo- 
rial to the Propaganda — to Cardinal Barnabo — stating the inter- 
ests and wants of religion and of the country, and then petition 
to be permitted to turn your labors in this direction. . . . 

" Such a course involves the release of your obHgations to 
the [Redemptorist] Congregation, and this would have to be ex- 
pressed distinctly in your petition, and motived by good rea- 
sons there given." 

Further on in the same letter he adds : " Since writing the 
above I have had time for more reflection, and consulted with 
my spiritual adviser, and this course appears to be the one Di- 
vine Providence points out." 

This very important letter ends as follows : '' I endeavor to 
keep close to God, to keep up my confidence in His protection, 
and in the aid of Our Blessed Lady. I pray for you all ; you 
cannot forget me in your prayers." 



266 The Life of Father Hecker, 

Then follow suggestions about obtaining testimonials from 
the American hierarchy for the information of the Holy See in a 
final settlement of the entire case. The prelates who wrote, all 
very favorably, were : Archbishops Hughes of New York, Ken- 
rick of Baltimore, Purcell of Cincinnati, Bishops Bayley of New- 
ark, Spalding of Louisville (both afterwards Archbishops of Bal- 
timore), Lynch of Charleston, Barry of Savannah, and De Goes- 
briand of Burlington, Vermont. 

On October 26, while wondering what would next happen, 
he writes : '' As for my part, I do not see one step ahead, but 
at the same time I never felt so closely embrace^ in the arms 
of Divine Providence." But on the next day: "It seems to me 
a great and entire change awaits us. . . . We are all of us 
young, and if we keep close and true to God — and there is 
nothing but ourselves to prevent this — a great and hopeful fu- 
ture is at our waiting. I know you pray for me ; continue to 
do so, and believe me always your wholly devoted friend and 
brother in Jesus and Mary." 

On November 12: "My present impression is that neither 
union with the Cisalpine Fathers nor separation as a band of 
[independent Redemptorist] missionaries in the United States 
will be approved of here. . . . What appears to me more and 
more probable is that we shall have to start entirely upon our 
own basis. This is perhaps the best of all, all things considered. 

. . Such a movement has from the beginning seemed to 
me the one to which Divine Providence calls us, but I always 
felt timid as long as any door was left open for us to act in 
the Congregation. ... I feel prepared to take this step 
with you without hesitation and with great confidence. . . 
I should have been glad, as soon as my dismission was given, to 
have started on in such a movement. But then it was my first 
duty to see whether this work could not be accomplished by 
the Congregation [of the Most Holy Redeemer] ; and, besides, 
I was not sure, as I now am, of your views being the same as 
mine. . . . All indicates the will of Divine Providence in 
our regard and gives me confidence. . . . 

"Father Hewit's letter, confirming your readiness to share your 
fortunes with me, was most consoling and strengthening. God 
knows we seek only His interest and glory and are ready to 
suffer anything rather than' offend Him. . . . 

" We should take our present missions as the basis of our 



Separation fj'oni the Redemptorists. 267 

unity and activity; at the same time not be exclusively restricted 
to them, but leave ourselves at liberty to adapt ourselves to the [re- 
ligious] wants which may present themselves in our country. Were 
the question presented to me to restrict myself exclusively to 
missions, in that case I should feel in conscience bound to obtain 
from holy men a decision on the question whether God had not 
pointed out another field for me. . . . Taking our missions 
and our present mode of life as the groundwork, the rest will 
have to be left to Divine Providence, the character of the coun- 
try, and our own spirit of faith and good common sense." 

In the same letter, that of December 25, he hopes that if the 
Holy See separates them from old affiliations they will form a 
society ** which would embody in its life what is good in the Amer- 
ican people in the natural order and adapt itself to answer the 
great wants of our people in the spiritual order. I must confess 
to you frankly that thoughts of this kind do occupy my mind, and 
day by day they appear to me to come more clearly from heaven. 
I cannot refuse to entertain them without resisting what appear 
to me the inspirations of God. You know that these are not 
new opinions hastily adopted. From the beginning of my Cath- 
olic Hfe there seemed always before me, but not distinctly, some 
such work, and it is indicated both in Questio7ts of the Soul and 
Aspirations of Nature. And I cannot resist the thought that my 
present peculiar position is or may be providential to further 
some such undertaking. ... It might be imagined that these 
views were but a ruse of the devil to thwart our common cause 
and future prospects. To this I have only to answer that the 
old rascal has been a long time at work to reach this point. If 
it be he, I shall head him off, because all that regards my per- 
sonal vocation I shall submit to wise and holy men and obey 
what they tell me." 

Father Hecker had his first audience with Pius IX., after 
much delay, on December 22. *' I felt," he said, in giving an 
account of it in after years, *' that my trouble in Rome was 
the great crisis in my life. I had one way of telling that I was 
not like Martin Luther : in my inmost soul I was ready, entire- 
ly ready, to submit to the judgment of the Church. They had 
made me out a rebel and a radical to the Holy Father, and 
when I saw him alone, after the usual salutations, and while on 
my knees, I said : * Look at me, Holy Father ; see, my shoul- 
ders are broad. Lay on the stripes. I will bear them. All I 



268 The Life of Father Hecker. 

want is justice. I want you to judge my case. I will submit' 
The Pope's eyes filled with tears at these words, and his man- 
ner was very kind." The rest of the interview is given in a 
letter: "The Pope bade me rise and told me he was informed 
all about my affairs. Then he asked what was my desire. I re- 
plied that he might have the goodness to examine the purpose 
of my coming to Rome, 'since it regarded the conversion of the 
American people, a work which the most intelligent and pious Cath- 
olics have at heart, among others Dr. Ives, whom you know.' *Yes,* 
he said; *has his wife become a Catholic?' I rephed in the af- 
firmative. * But what can I do ? ' he said ; ' the ^affair is being 
examined by Archbishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation 
of Bishops and Regulars), and nothing can be done until he gives 
in his report; then I will give my opinion and my decision.' 'Your 
decision, most Holy Father, is God's decision, and whatever it 
may be willingly and humbly will I submit to it' While I was 
making this remark his Holiness paid the greatest attention, and 
it seemed to satisfy and please him. * The American people,' he 
continued, ' are much engrossed in worldly things and in the pur- 
suit of wealth, and these are not favorable to reHgion ; it is not I 
who say so, but our Lord in the Gospel.' 'The United States, your 
Holiness,' I replied, ' is in its youth, and, like a young father of a 
family occupied in furnishing his house, while this is going on 
he must be busy; but the American people do not make money to 
hoard it, nor are they miserly.' 'No, no,' he repHed ; 'they 
are willing to give when they possess riches. The bishops tell 
me they are generous in aiding the building of churches. You 
see,' he added, ' I know the bright side as well as the dark side 
of the Americans ; but in the United States there exists a too 
unrestricted freedom, all the refugees and revolutionists gather 
there and are in full liberty.' ' True, most Holy Father ; but this 
has a good side. Many of them, seeing in the United States that 
the Church is self-subsisting and not necessarily connected with 
what they call despotism, begin to regard it as a Divine institu- 
tion and return to her fold.' 'Yes,' he said, 'the Church is as 
much at home in a republic as in a monarchy or aristocracy. 
But then, again, you have the abolitionists and their opponents, 
who get each other by the hair.' 'There is also the Catholic 
faith. Holy Father, which if once known would act on these par- 
ties like oil upon troubled waters, and our best-informed states- 
men are becoming more and more convinced that Catholicity is 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 269 

necessary to sustain our institutions, and enable our young coun- 
try to realize her great destiny. And allow me to add, most 
Holy Father, that it would be an enterprise worthy of your 
glorious pontificate to set on foot the measures necessary for the 
beginning of the conversion of America.' 

** On retiring he gave me his blessing, and repeated in a loud 
voice as I kneeled, 'Bravo! Bravo!'" 

''Pius IX.," said Father Hecker afterwards, "was a man of 
the largest head, of still larger heart, moved more by his impulses 
than by his judgment ; but his impulses were great, noble, all- 
embracing." 

It will not be out of place here to look more closely into 
Father Hecker's conscience and study his motives. One might 
ask why he did not simply submit to the infliction visited upon 
him by his superior in the order, and humbly withdraw from 
notice till God should find a way to vindicate him. But his 
case was not a personal one. He was in Rome representing a 
body of priests and a public cause, and every principle of duty 
and honor required an appeal to higher authority. Nor was 
vindication the chief end in view, but rather freedom to follow 
the dictates of the Holy Spirit in accordance with Catholic tra- 
ditions and wholly subject to the laws and usages of the Church. 
Beyond securing exactly this he had no object whatever. On 
February 19, 1858, he thus wrote to his brother George: 

" But there is no use of keeping back anything. My policy 
has all along been to have no policy, but to be frank, truthful, and 
have no fear. For my own part I will try my best to be true 
to the hght and grace given me, even though it reduces me to 
perfect insignificance. I desire nothing upon earth except to 
labor for the good of our Religion and our Country, and what- 
ever may be the decision of our affairs here, my aims cannot be 
defeated. I feel, indeed, quite indifferent about the decision 
which may be given, so that they allow us freedom." 

As illustrating Father Hecker's supernatural motives and rec- 
titude of conscience the following extracts from letters to the 
Fathers will be of interest. In September, when the arrow was 
yet in the wound, he wrote : 

" I have no feelings of resentment against any one of the 



270 The Life of Father Hecker. 

actors [in this matter]. On the contrary I could embrace them 
all with unfeigned sentiments of love. God has been exceedingly- 
good not to let me be even tempted in this way." 

Again, on December 5 : 

" Your repeated assurances of being united with me in our 
future fills me with consolation and courage. We may well re- 
peat the American motto, ' United we stand, divided we fall.' 
Never did I find myself more sustained by the grace of God. 
How often I have heard repeated by acquaintances I have made 
here : * Why, Father Hecker, you are the happiest man in 
Rome ! ' Little do they know how many sleepless nights I 
have passed, how deeply I have suffered within three months. 
But isn't Almighty God good ? It seems I never knew or 
felt before what it is to be wholly devoted to Him." 

On December 9, after a long exposition of the need of a new 
religious missionary institute for America : 

** Considering our past training, and many other advantages 
which we possess, I cannot but believe that God will use us, 
provided that we remain faithful to Him, united together as one 
man, and ready to make any sacrifice for some such holy enter- 
prise; and my daily prayer is that the Holy Father may re- 
ceive a special grace and inspiration to welcome and bless such 
a proposition." 

With his Christmas greetings he wrote: ''From the start I 
have not suffered myself to repose a moment when there was 
anything to be done which promised help. Whatever may be 
the result of our affairs, this consolation will be with me — I did 
my utmost, and everything just and honorable, to deserve suc- 
cess. No one would believe how much I have gone through at 
Rome, but I do it cheerfully, and sometimes gaily, because I 
know it is the will of God." 

On February 19, 1858: "The experience I have made here 
is worth more than my weight in gold. If God intends to em- 
ploy us in any important work in the future, such an experience 
was absolutely necessary for us. It is a novitiate on a large 
scale. I cannot thank God sufficiently for my having made it 
thus far without incurring by my conduct the displeasure or 
censure of any one." 



Separation frojn the Redemptorists. 271 

And a week afterwards : " You should write often, for words 
of sympathy, hope, encouragement are much to me now in these 
trials, difficulties, and conflicts. In all my Catholic life I have not 
experienced oppression and anxiety of mind in such a degree as 
I have for these ten days past." 

March 6 : "So far from my devotion to religion being di- 
minished by recent events, it has, thank God, greatly increased ; 
but many other things have been changed in me. On many 
new points my inteUigence has been awakened ; experience has 
dispelled much ignorance, and on the whole I hope that my faith 
and heart have been more purified. If God spares my life to 
return, I hope to come back more a man, a better Catholic, 
and more entirely devoted to the work of God." 

The following is from a copy of a letter to Father de Held 
dated November 2 : " One thing my trials have taught me, and 
this is the one thing important — to love God more. It almost 
seems that I did not know before what it is to love Him." 

When it became evident that the Holy See would decide the 
case so as to make it necessary for the Fathers to foi'm a new 
society. Father Hecker did not accept even this as a final in- 
dication of Providence that external circumstances had made it 
possible for him to realize his long-cherished dreams of an 
American apostolate ; for he was at Hberty still to refuse. He 
redoubled his prayers. His pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Al- 
phonsus is already known to the reader ; he caused a novena of 
Masses to be said at the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help 
in the Redemptorist Church in Rome ; he said Mass himself at 
all the great shrines, especially the Confession of St. Peter, the 
altar of St. Ignatius and that of St. Philip Neri; he earnestly en- 
treated all his friends, old ones at home and new-found ones in 
Rome, to join with him in his prayers for light. 

He furthermore took measures to obtain the counsel of wise 
and holy men. Every one whom he thought worthy of his 
confidence was asked for an opinion. Finally he drew up a 
formal document, known in this biography as the Roman 
Statement, and already familiar by reference and quotation, and 
placed it in the hands of the three religious whose names, in 
addition to those of Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop Bedini, 



272 The Life of Father Hecker. 

appear at the end of the extract we make from its original 
draft It opens with a summary of his conversion, entrance 
into rehgion, and missionary Hfe, and embraces a full enough 
statement of the trouble with the General of the order — a mat- 
ter of notoriety at the time in the city of Rome. Fie then de- 
scribes his own interior aspirations and vocation to the aposto- 
late in America, backing up the authority of that inner voice 
with the external testimonials of prelates and priests and lay- 
men, whose letters had been procured by the Propaganda as 
evidence in the case before the Congregation of Bishops and 
Regulars. 

' " If God has called me," • he continues, '' to such a work, 
His providence has in a singular way, since my arrival at Rome, 
opened the door for me to undertake it. The object of 'my 
coming to Rome was to induce the General to sustain and 
favor the extension of our missionary labors in the United 
States. It was undertaken altogether for the good of the order, 
in the general interests of religion, and in undoubted good 
faith. Under false impressions of my purpose, my expulsion 
from the Congregation was decreed three days after my arrival. 
This was about three months ago, and it was the source of the 
deepest affliction to me, and up to within a short time my 
greatest desire was to re-enter the Congregation. At present it 
seems to me that these things were permitted by Divine Provi- 
dence in order to place me in the position to undertake that 
mission which has never ceased to occupy my thoughts." 

After some description of the state of rehgion in America 
the statement concludes : 

*' These [American non- Catholics] require an institution 
which shall have their conversion to the Catholic faith as its 
principal aim, which is free to develop itself according to the 
fresh wants which may spring up, thus opening an attractive 
future to the religious vocations of the Catholic young men of 
that country. 

" Regarding, therefore, my early and extensive acquaintance 
among rny own people, politically, socially, religiously, with the 
knowledge of their peculiar wants, with their errors also ; and- 
the way in which God has led me and the graces given to me; 
and my interior convictions and the experience acquired con- 



Separation from the Redemptorists, 273 

firming them since my Catholic life, and also my singular posi- 
tion at present — the question, in conclusion, is to know from 
holy, instructed, and experienced men in such matters whether 
or not there is sufficient evidence of a special vocation from 
God for me to undertake now such a work." 

What follows is placed at the bottom of the last page of the 
statement : 

"Epiphany, 1858, Rome. 

" This document I had translated into Italian, and I gave it 
to Cardinal Barnabo, Archbishop Bedini, Father Francis, Pas- 
sionist — my director while in Rome — Father Gregorio, definitor, 
Carmelite, and Father Druelle, of the Congregation of the Holy 
Cross, and each gave a favorable answer." 

Father Hecker often said that he was fully determined ta 
forego the entire matter, go back to the Redemptorists, or drift 
whithersoever Providence might will, if a single one of the men 
whom he thus consulted had failed to approve him, or had so 
much as expressed a doubt. He had inquired who were the most 
spiritually enlightened men in Rome, and had been guided to 
the three religious whom he had associated with Cardinal Bar- 
nabo and Archbishop Bedini to assist him in coming to a de- 
cision. 

The end came at last, and is announced in a letter of March 

9, 1858: 

" The Pope has spoken, and the American Fathers, including 
myself, are dispensed from their vows. The decree is not in 
my hands, but Cardinal Barnabo read it to me last evening. 
The General is not mentioned in it, and no attention whatever is 
paid to his action in my regard. The other Fathers are dis- 
pensed in view of the petition they made, as the demand for 
separation as Redemptorists would destroy the unity of the Con- 
gregation, and in the dispensation I am associated with them. 
The Cardinal [Barnabo] is wholly content ; says that I must ask 
immediately for an audience to thank the Pope. . . . Now let 
us thank God for our success." 

On March 11: " We are left in entire liberty to act in the 
future as God and our intelligence shall point the way. Let us 
be thankful to God, humble towards each other and every one 



274 The Life of Father Becker. 

else, and more than ever in earnest to do the work God de- 
mands at our hands. . . . The Pope had before him all the 
documents, yours and mine and the General's, and the letters 
from the Archbishops and Bishops of the United States. Arch- 
bishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and 
Regulars) gave him a verbal report of their contents and read 
some of the letters. Subsequently the Pope himself examined 
them and came to the conclusion to grant us dispensation. But 
there was / in the way, who had not petitioned for a dispensa- 
tion. And why not ? Simply because Cardinal Barnabo would 
have been offended at me if I had done so. . ^ .1 could not 
go against the wishes of the cardinal. A few days after he had 
given me his views, and with such warmth that I could not act 
against them, he saw the Pope, who informed him of his in- 
tention to give us dispensation and to set aside the decree of 
my expulsion. On seeing the cardinal after this audience he 
told me that I might communicate this to Archbishop Bizarri. 
I did so by note, telling him that if the Pope set aside my ex- 
pulsion and was determined to give the other American Fathers 
dispensation from their vows, in view of the circumstances which 
had arisen I would be content to accept my dispensation also. 
This note of mine was shown to the Pope, and hence he imme- 
diately associated me with you in the dispensation. 

" The wording of the decree is such as to make it plain that 
it was given in view of your memorial, and its terms are calcu- 
lated to give a favorable impression of us. . . . Archbishop 
Bizarri told me yesterday, when I went to thank him for his 
part, that in it the Holy See had given us its praise, and he 
trusted we would show ourselves worthy of it in the future. I 
rejoined that since the commencement of our Catholic life we 
had given ourselves soul and body entirely to the increase of 
God's glory and the interests of His Church, and it was our 
firm resolve to continue to do so to the end of our lives. He 
was quite gratified with our contentment with the decision, for 
I spoke, as I always have done, in your name as well as my 
own. 

** But whom do you think I met in his antechamber ? The 
General [of the Redemptorists |. When he came in and got seated 
I immediately went across the room and reached out my hand to 
him, and we shook hands and sat down beside each other. 
. . . In the course of the conversation he inquired what we 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 275 

intended to do in the future. My reply was that we had 
been guided by God's prov^idence in the past and we looked 
to Him for guidance in our future. . . . As to my re- 
turn [home], the cardinal says I must not think of departing 
till after Easter. Indeed, I see that before I can obtain an au- 
dience to thank the Holy Father it will be hard on to Easter. 
If there be a i^^N days intervening I will go to Our Lady of 
Loretto to invoke her aid in our behalf, and for her protection 
over us as a body and over each one in particular. In May, 
earlier or later in the month, with God's blessing and your pray- 
ers, I hope to be with you. . . 

" The decree, which places us, according to the Canons, under 
the authority of the Bishops, you will, of course, understand, does 
not in any way make us parish priests. The Pope could not 
tell us in it to commence another congregation, although this is 
what he, ' and Cardinal Barnabo, and Archbishop Bedini, and 
others, expect from us. He [the Pope"] said that for him to tell 
us so [officially] would be putting the cart before the horse. 
These are his words." 

On March 18: " It is customary here, before giving dispensa- 
tion of vows to religious, to require them to show their admission 
into a diocese. As this was not required in our case, we are con- 
sequently at hberty now to choose any bishop we please who will 
receive us. ' Choose your bishop, inform him of your inten- 
tions, and if he approves, arrange your conditions with him.' 
These are the cardinal's words, and both he and Archbishop 
Bedini suggested New York. , . , My trip to Loretto has 
come to naught, as I can find no one to accompany me, and 
then my health, I fear, will not bear so much fatigue. I shall 
come back with some gray hairs ; I thought to pull them all out 
before my return, but on looking this morning with that inten- 
tion I found them too many. However, that is only on the out- 
side ; within all is right — young, fresh,- and full of courage, and 
ready to fight the good fight' " 

The following is a memorandum of his second audience with 
Pius IX. : 

*' Yesterday, the i6th of March, the Pope accorded me an 
audience, and on my entering his room he repeated my name, 
gave me his blessing, and after I had kissed his ring he told me 



2/6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

to rise, and said : 'At length your affairs are determined. We 
have many causes to decide, and each must have its turn ; 
yours came finally, and now you have our decision.' ' True,' 
I repHed, ' and your decision gives me great satisfaction, and 
it appears to me that it should be satisfactory to all concerned.' 
' I found you,' he rejoined, * like Abraham and Lot, and (mak- 
ing a motion with his hand) I told one to take this, the other 
that direction.' ' For my part,' I said. ' I look upon the decision 
as providential, as I sought no personal triumph over the General, 
but entertain every sentiment of charity towards him, and every 
one of my former religious brethren.' This remajk appeared to 
move the Pope, and I continued : * I thought of your Holiness'' 
decision in the holy Mass of this morning, when in the Gospel 
our Lord reminds us not to decide according to the appearances 
of things, but render a just judgment; and such is the one you 
have given, and for our part we trust that you will receive in 
the future consolation and joy [from our conduct].' * As you 
petitioned,' he said, * with the other Fathers as one of the Con- 
gregation, in giving you dispensation I considered you a mem- 
ber of the Congregation.' 'So I understood it,' was my reply; 
' and as a [private] person I felt no inclination to defend my 
character, but as a priest I felt it to be my duty ; and in this 
regard your Holiness has done all that I have desired.' 'But 
you intend to remain,' he inquired, * together in community ? ' 
' Most assuredly, your Holiness ; our intention is to live and 
work as we have hitherto done. But there are many [spiritual] 
privileges attached to the work of the missions very necessary to 
their success, and which we would gladly participate in.' * Well, 
well,' he answered, * organize, begin your work, and then demand 
them, and I will grant them to you. The Americans, however, 
are very much engrossed in material pursuits.' 'True, Holy 
Father,' I replied, 'but the faith is there. We five missionaries 
are Americans, and were like the .others, but you see the grace 
of God has withdrawn us from these things and moved us to 
consecrate ourselves wholly to God and His Church, and we 
hope it will do the same for many of our countrymen. And 
once our countrymen are Catholics, we hope they will do great 
things for God's Church and His glory, for they have enthusi- 
asm.' 'Yes, yes,' he rejoined, 'it would be a great consolation 
to me.' I asked him if he would grant me a plenary indulgence 
for my brethren and my friends in the United States. 'Well,' 



Separation from the Redemptorists. ^'jj 



he said, 'but I must have a rescript' *I have one with me 
which perhaps will do,' I answered. Looking over it, he made 
some alterations and signed it. I knelt down at his feet and 
begged him to give me a large blessing before my departure, 
in order that I might become a great missionary in the United 
States — which he gave me most cordially, and I retired. 

"■ His manner was very affectionate, and in the course of the 
conversation he called me ' caro into' and ' fig Ho mio' several 
times. We could not desire to leave a more favorable impres- 
sion than exists here in regard to us and our part in the recent 
transaction, and we have the sympathy of the Pope and the 
Propaganda. Rome will withhold nothing from us if we prove 
worthy of its confidence, and will hail our success with true 
joy. I look upon this settlement of our difficulties as the work 
of Divine Providence, and my prayer is that it may make me 
humble, modest, and renew my desire to consecrate myself 
wholly to God's designs." 

He writes to the Fathers, March 27: ** The seven months 
passed here in Rome seem to me an age ; and have taxed me 
to that extent that I look forward to home as a place of rest 
and repose. When I think of the fears, anxieties, and labors un- 
dergone I say to myself — enough for this time. On the other 
hand, when I remember the warm and disinterested friends 
God has given us on account of these difficulties, and the happy 
issue to which His providence has conducted them, my heart is 
full of gratitude and joy. To me the future looks bright, hope- 
ful, full of promise, and I feel confident in God's providence, 
and assured of His grace in our regard. I feel like raising up 
the cross as our standard and adopting one word as our motto 
— Conquer ! 

** I have just received the documents for you to give the 
Papal benediction at the missions, and will send them. A letter 
reached here this week from the Bishop of Burlington, Vt, and 
it is strongly in our favor ; it concludes by saying that all that 
we required to make us a religious Congregation was the special 
blessing of the Holy Father." 

Again, on April 3 : '* Monsignor Bedini asked of the Pope the 
special benediction that Bishop De Goesbriand suggested, and he 
replied : * Did I not give it to Pere Hecker, and through him to 
his brethren, when he was here ? ' ' But,' answered Monsignor 



2/8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Bedini, ' give them this benediction this time on the request of 
the bishop.' And he answered : ' It is well ; I do.' So there is 
a special blessing from the Holy Father in view of our forming 
a religious body. Indeed, that is so well understood here that 
several have inquired what name we intend to adopt, etc. Of 
course to all such questions my answer is : 'I can say nothing ; 
the future is in God's hands, and we intend to follow His provi- 
dence.' . . . 

" Good Cardinal Barnabo looks upon us with a paternal re- 
gard, and when I expressed in your name how warmly we re- 
turned his affection, and what a deep gratitude we- owed him, he 
was deeply moved, and replied that he did not deserve such sen- 
timents, and that he had only done justice. Since the settlement 
of our affairs I have let no occasion pass to express our grati- 
tude to those who have befriended us ; and as for Cardinal Bar- 
nabo, Monsignor Bedini, Bishop Connolly, and Doctor Bernard 
Smith, Benedictine monk, they should be put at the head of the 
list of our spiritual benefactors and remembered in all our pray- 
ers. Now that we are a body, I would advise this to be done 
at once. The Holy Father stands No. i ; that is understood. 

" How much I have to relate to you on my return ! Many 
things I did not venture to write down on paper, and many I 
can communicate to no one else but you. How great is my 
desire to see you ! — it seems that I have no other. 

"I have taken passage for Marseilles on Tuesday after Eas- 
ter, the 6th of April, and intend to take passage on the 
Vanderbiltj which leaves Havre on the 28th. ... I saw the 
General on Tuesday of this week, to take leave of him. After 
some conversation we left in good feeling, promising to pray pro 
mvicem. God bless him ! " 

Before leaving Paris Father Hecker received extremely affec- 
tionate letters of congratulation from his old friends, Fathers de 
Held and de Buggenoms. 

The following is the decree of the Congregation of Bishops 
and Regulars : * 

* Nuper nonnulli ex Presbyteris Congregationis SSmi Redemptoris in provinciis Americae 
Septentrionalis foederatis existentibus SSmutn D. N. Pium PP. IX. supplici prece depreca- 
bantur, ut eis ob speciales circumstantias concederet ab auctoritate et jurisdictione Rectoris 
Majoris subtrahi, ac a proprio Superiore Apostolicre Sedi immediate subject© juxta regulara 
a Benedicto XIV,, sanctae memorias, approbatam gubernari. Quod si id eis datum non esset, 
dispensationem a votis in dicta Congregatione emissis, hnmillime expostulabant. Re sedulo 
perpensa, Sanctitas Sua existimavit hujusmodi separationem unitati Congregationis officere, 



Separation from the Redemptorists. 279 

" Certain priests of the Congregation of the Most Holy Re- 
deemer in the United States of North America recently pre- 
sented their most humble petition to our Most Holy Lord Pope 
Pius IX., that in view of certain special reasons he would grant that 
they might be withdrawn from the authority and jurisdiction of 
the Rector Major and be governed by a superior of their own, 
immediately subject to the Apostolic See, and according to the 
[Redemptorist] Rule approved by Benedict XIV., of holy memory. 
If, however, this should not be granted to them, they most hum- 
bly asked for dispensation from their vows in the said Congrega- 
tion. After having carefully considered the matter, it appeared 
to his Holiness that a separation of this kind would be prejudi- 
cial to the unity of the Congregation and by no means accord 
with the Institute of St. Alphonsus, and therefore should not be 
permitted. Since, however, it was represented to his Holiness 
that the petitioners spare no labor in the prosecution of the holy 
missions, in the conversion of souls, and in the dissemination of 
Christian- doctrine, and are for this reason commended by many 
bishops, it seemed more expedient to his Holiness to withdraw 
them from the said Congregation, that they might apply them- 
selves to the prosecution of the works of the sacred ministry un- 
der the direction of the local bishops. Wherefore his Holiness 
by the tenor of this decree, and by his Apostolic authority, does 
dispense from their simple vows and from that of permanence 
in the Congregation the said priests, viz.: Clarence Walworth, 
Augustine Hewit, George Deshon, and Francis Baker, together 
with the priest Isaac Hecker, who has joined himself to their pe- 
tition in respect to dispen.sation from the vows, and declares 
them to be dispensed and entirely released, so that they no 
longer belong to the said Congregation. And his HoHness con- 
fidently trusts that under the direction and jurisdiction of the lo- 

et S. Alphonsi institute minime respondere ideoque baud permittendum esse. Cum autem re- 
latum sit oratores nuUi labori parcere in sacris expeditionibus peragendis, at in proximorum 
conversione, Christianaque institutione curanda, et idcirco a pluribus Anlistibus coinmenden- 
tur, visum est SSmo Domino magis expedire eos a prasfata Congregatione eximi, ut in sacri 
ministerii opera promovenda sub directione Antistitum locorum incumbere possint. Quaprop- 
ter Sanctitas Sua presb>teros Clarentium Walworth, Augustinum Hewit, Georgium Deshon, 
et Franciscum Baker, una cum presbytero Isaac Hecker, qui eorumdem postulationibus quoad 
dispensationem a votis adhaesit, avotis simplicibus, etiam permanentiae in Congregatione SSmi 
Redemptoris emissis, hujus Decreti tenore, Apostohca auctoritate dispensat, et dispensatos, ac 
prorsus solutos esse declarat, ita ut ad eamdem Congregationem amplius non pertineant. 
Confidit vero Sanctitas Sua memoratos Presbyteros, qua oper^, qua exempio, qua sermone, in 
vinea Domini sub directione et jurisdictione Antistitum locorum, ad praescriptum SS. Ca- 
nonum adlaboraturos, ut seternam animarum salutem alacriter curent, atque proximorum sane- 
tificationem pro viribus promoveant. 

Datum Rom.Te, ex Secretaria Sacrae Congfegationis Episcoporum et Regularium, 
Die 6 Martii, 1858. 

[l. ill s.] G. Card, della Genga, Prcef. 

A., Archiepiscopus Philippen, Sec. 



280 



The Life of Father Hecker. 



cal bishops, according to the prescription of the sacred Canons, 
the above-mentioned priests will labor by work, example, and 
word in the vineyard of the Lord, and give themselves with alac- 
rity to the eternal salvation of souls, and promote with all their 
power the sanctification of their neighbor. 

*' Given at Rome, in the office of the Sacred Congre- 
gation of Bishops and Regulars, the 6th day of 
March, 1858. 

[l. s] G. Cardinal della Genoa, Prefect. 

" A., Archbishop of Philippi, Secretary. ''^^ 

Note. — I wish to add to this, that the relations between the 
Redemptorists and Paulists are, and I trust will continue to be,, 
most amicable. 

Aug. F. He wit, C.S.P., Superior. 




CHAPTER XXV. 

•BEGINNINGS OF THE PAULIST COMMUNITY. 

DURING the seven months of Father Hecker's stay in Rome 
the band of American missionaries were busily occupied. 
Missions were given in the following order : Newark, N. J.; Pough- 
keepsie, Cold Spring on the Hudson, and Utica, N. Y.; Brandy- 
wine, Del.; Trenton, N. J.; Burlington, Brandon, East and West 
Rutland, Vt, and Pittsburgh, Saratoga, and Little Falls, N. Y. 
All these labors were undertaken subject to the authority of the 
Redemptorist Provincial and in a spirit of entire obedience. The 
mission at Little Falls closed on Palm Sunday, March 28, and 
the missionaries, with the exception of Father Baker, who wks 
sent to Annapolis, Md., returned to the Redemptorist house in 
Third Street, New York. On the Tuesday after Easter, April 
6, 1858, the official copy of the Pope's decision reached them, 
and they bade farewell to their Redemptorist brethren and to 
the community in which they had spent so many happy years, 
and witnessed, as Father Hewit has written, " so many edifying 
examples of high virtue and devoted zeal, to enter upon a new 
and untried undertaking." 

Archbishop Kenrick, as soon as he heard of this, made a de- 
termined effort to secure Father Baker for the diocese of Balti- 
more, but the latter never for a moment faltered in his purpose 
to cast his lot with his brethren, and the archbishop gave up 
his claim upon him at the request of Cardinal Barnabo. 

Their engagements called for two more missions before the 
season ended — one at Watertown, N. Y., and the other at St. 
Bridget's Church, New York City. The first of these opened on 
the 1 8th of April, and while waiting for that date the Fathers 
lived with Mr. George Hecker in Rutger's Place, saying Mass in 
his private chapel and following their religious rule as far as cir- 
cumstances allowed, continuing meantime to obey Father Wal- 
worth, their former superior of the missions. They journeyed to 
Watertown, fearful lest the faculties for giving the Papal blessing 
and the mission indulgences should not arrive there in time. 
But late on Saturday night, April 17, they were received, much 
to the joy of the Fathers. 

Here occurred a noteworthy coincidence. Watertown was at 
that time in the diocese of Albany, of which Bishop McCloskey 



282 The Life of Father Hecker. 

was then the ordinary. He had received Father Hecker into 
the Church and had been his first guide in the spiritual Hfe, and 
now he was the first to pubHcly welcome his brethren at the be- 
ginning of their new career. The following is from a letter of 
his to Father Walworth in answer to one announcing the recent 
changes : 

" I am happy to hear that your difficulties have at length re- 
ceived their solution, and in a manner, I presume, as satisfactory 
as you could well expect. The future must now in great meas- 
ure depend upon yourselves. You will, of course, have difficulties 
to surmount and prejudices to encounter, but I t^ust that with 
God's blessing your new community when once organized will 
continue from day to day to gain increased stability and strength, 
and be enabled to carry out successfully all its laudable aims for 
the good of our holy religion. The faculties already given you 
in this diocese you will not consider as being withdrawn by the 
act of your separation from the Redemptorist order, and there is 
nothing that I know of to interfere with your proposed mission 
in Watertown." 

During the mission at St. Bridget's — that is, in the first half 
of the month of May — Father Hecker arrived in New York and 
measures were at once taken for the practical organization of the 
new community. Nothing was done hurriedly ; a fair and full 
consideration of all questions from every point of view, which lasted 
until early in the month of July, enabled each one clearly to un- 
derstand his new relation in its every aspect. Father Walworth 
not being entirely in agreement with the others, withdrew to the 
diocese of Albany and took charge of a parish ; he returned again 
in 1 86 1, remaining with the community till 1865, when his health 
becoming quite shattered, he reluctantly decided to withdraw al- 
together. It need hardly be said that the relations between him 
and the community have always been most cordial. Meantime 
the others. Fathers Hecker, Hewit, Deshon, and Baker, organized 
by electing the first- named the Superior, and drew up and signed 
what was termed a Programme of Rule. This was submitted to 
Archbishop Hughes and by him approved and signed on July 7, 
1858. The Apostle of the Gentiles was chosen as patron, and the 
name selected was. The Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apos- 
tle, which has been popularized into Paulists. The habit agreed 
upon was in form somewhat like that of the students of the 
Propaganda in Rome, black throughout, with a narrow linen 



Beginnings of the Paulist Community. 283 

collar and buttoned across the breast, being held at the waist by 
a cincture. 

The Programme of Rule adopts an order of spiritual exer- 
cises similar to that observed by the Fathers while Redemptor- 
ists. A perpetual voluntary agreement takes the place of the vows 
as the security of stability, the members affirming that they 
are fully determined to promote their sanctification by leading 
a life in all essential respects similar to that led in the rehgious 
orders. Besides the chastity imposed upon them by the priesthood 
the other evangelical counsels of obedience and poverty are adopted 
and their observance enjoined upon the members, together with 
the daily and periodical exercises of community life. As to the 
external vocation, the missions are named as the basis of gen- 
eral apostolic labors, and parish work also, though in a subor- 
dinate degree. The entire document looks forward to a com- 
plete Rule to be drawn up and submitted to the Holy See 
at a future day, for which it actually furnished the outlines 
some twenty years afterwards. The approval of the Programme 
of a Rule by the Archbishop of New York gave the Fathers the 
canonical status anticipated by the decree Niiper nonmilli. This 
was confirmed by an official permission of the Holy See to the 
Archbishop Of New York to establish the Paulist Institute in his 
diocese, with the consent of his suffi-agans, which was asked for 
and obtained. 

A little more than a fortnight after these events Father 
Hecker wrote as follows to a friend : 

"Before leaving Rome our Holy Father Pius IX. gave us 
his special blessing for the commencement of our new organiza- 
tion, promised us any privileges we might need to carry on our 
missionary labors, and held out the hope of his sanction, in 
proper time, of the rules which we might make. In my last 
visit to his Eminence Cardinal Barnabo he gave me advice how 
to organize, what steps were to be taken from time to time, 
and expressed a most lively interest in our undertaking. The 
same did Monsignor Bedini. On my return we organized as 
advised, wrote out an outline of our new institution and sub- 
mitted it to the ordinary of this diocese, the initiatory step of 
all such undertakings. He gave it his cordial approbation, and 
said that he tound no word to alter, to add, or improve. Thus 
we are so iar regularly canonically instituted. 



284 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" Our aim is to lead a strict religious life in community, 
starting with the voluntary principle ; leaving the question of 
vows to further experience, counsel, and indications of Divine 
Providence. Our principal work is the missions, such as we 
have hitherto given, but we are not excluded from other apos- 
tolic labors as the wants of the Church may demand or develop. 
. . . We begin early this fall our campaign of missions, and 
we never had before us so fine a list. One thing I may say, 
and I trust without boasting, we are of one mind and heart, 
resolved to labor and die for Jesus Christ, for the good of His 
holy Church, for the advancement of the Catholic faith. We 
have the encouragement of a number of bishops, and also, we 
trust, the prayers, sympathy, and assistance of the faithful. We 
shall have to face obstacles, opposition from friends and foes ; 
but if we are the right kind of men and have the virtues which 
such a position as ours demands, our trials will only strengthen 
us and make us the better Christians. Every good work must 
expect opposition from pious men, and our minds are made up 
to that." 

After St. Bridget's mission the Httle community found it- 
self homeless, and it remained so till the spring of the year 
1859. But during part of this period Mr, George Hecker, 
taking his family to the country, gave up his whole house to 
the Fathers, servants and all, making provision for the supply 
of every want in the most generous manner. For the greater 
portion of the time, however, especially between missions in 
the winter and spring of 1858-9, the Fathers depended for 
temporary shelter upon the hospitality of friends among the 
clergy and laity, even lodging for a short while in a respect- 
able boarding-house in Thirteenth street, at a convenient dis- 
tance from several churches and chapels where Mass could be 
said daily. 

But in the spring of 1858 arrangements had been made with 
Archbishop Hughes for establishing a house and parish in New 
York. The present site of St. Paul's Church and convent, then 
in the midst of a suburban wilderness, was chosen, and, by dint 
of hasty collections from private friends and with the help of a 
very large gift from Mr. George Hecker, money enough was 
paid down to obtain the deeds. Sixtieth Street was not quite 
opened at the time, and this part of Ninth Avenue existed only 



Beginnings of the Paulist Community. 285 

on paper; but by energetic efforts made by all the Fathers and 
their friends, and by personal appeals in every direction, espe- 
cially in the down-town parishes in which they had given mis- 
sions, sufficient funds were raised to clear the ground and lay 
the foundations of a building which was to include both con- 
vent and church. Early in the summer of 1858 circulars asking 
assistance had been sent out to the clergy of the United States, 
and by this means also a considerable amount was secured, the 
very first answer with a handsome donation coming from Father 
Early, President of Georgetown College. In the spring of 1859 
the Fathers rented a frame house on Sixtieth Street, just west of 
Broadway, fitted up a little chapel in it, and lived there in 
community till the new house was finished. 

The corner-stone of the new structure was laid by Archbishop 
Hughes on Trinity Sunday, June 19, 1859, in the presence of 
an immense concourse of people. During that summer and fall 
every effort was made to keep the builders at work. The task 
was no easy one. The times were hard, the country still suffer- 
ing from the effects of the financial crisis of 1857, the financial 
depression being aggravated by the ominous outlook in the poli- 
tical world. But the house was finally completed, and was blessed 
by Father Hecker on the 24th of November, the feast of St. 
John of the Cross, one of his very special patrons. This was 
within a few weeks of his fortieth birthday. On the 27th of the 
same month, the first Sunday of Advent, the chapel was blessed 
and Solemn Mass was celebrated in it. Thereafter the Fathers 
had to act as parish priests as well as missionaries. A few 
weeks before this the fi-rst recruit joined the little band in the 
person of Father Robert Beverly Tillotson, a convert, who, 
though an American, had been for some time a member of Dr. 
Newman's Oratory. He was a charming preacher and a noble 
character, much beloved by all the fathers, and especially by 
Father Hecker. He died, deeply mourned, in the summer of 
1868, having given the community nine years of most valuable 
service. He came just in time to set free three of the Fathers 
for missionary duty, the other two remaining in care of the 
parish. This was at first small enough in numbers, though in 
territory it reached from Fifty-second Street to very near Man- 
hattanville. The accession of Father Alfred Young, of the diocese 
of Newark, and the return of Father Walworth considerably 
relieved the pressure, though the rapid growth of the parish and 



286 The Life of Father Hecker. 

the widening scope of the community's labors kept every one 
busy enough. 

The newly-founded Paulist community was heartily welcomed 
by both clergy and people. Missions were given in various parts 
of the country, applications being often declined for want of time 
and missionaries. Several prelates, among whom were the Arch- 
bishops of Baltimore and Cincinnati, wrote to Father Hecker offer- 
ing to establish the community in their dioceses; Bishop Bayley, 
of Newark, also wished to secure the Fathers, and he was espe- 
cially urgent in his request. One has but to know the intensely 
conservative spirit of the CathoHc hierarchy and clergy to appre- 
ciate how stainless must have been the record of tlie Fathers to 
elicit such testimonials of good- will just after they had fought a 
hard battle on the ground of authority and obedience. As to the 
Catholic laity, the following extract from a letter of the poet 
George H. Miles, whose early death some years after was so 
deeply lamented, shows how they regarded the new community. 
It was written from Baltimore under date of August 13, 1858: 

'' My very dear Father Hecker : . . . Since we last 
parted you have been to me one of those grand, good memories we 
take to heart and cherish. I have loved you better than you could 
believe, for I felt that in the extremity of sorrow or temptation 
you were the man and the priest I would have recourse to, could 
my own wish be granted. You are not wrong in considering me a 
friend; that is, if much love may atone for little power to befriend. 

. . Providentially, it now appears, you men have always had 
an individual force that detached you completely from your con- 
freres. To me and to the multitudes you were never Redemp- 
torists, never Liguorians, but Hecker, Walworth, Hewit, Deshon, 
Baker. I mean to utter nothing disrespectful to the society which 
has blessed this nation in training and developing you and your 
new body of preachers, but I maintain that you stood so completely 
apart from that society, so absolutely individualized, that, etc." 

The three years following Father Hecker's return from 
Rome were exceedingly active ones. The missions were main- 
tained, money collected for the purchase of the property and 
the building of the convent at the corner of Fifty-ninth Street 
and Ninth Avenue, and, after the opening of the new church 
in November, 1859, the regular duties of a city parish were 
added. 

" I am hard at work," writes Father Hecker to a friend, in 



Beginnings of the Paulist Community. 287 

the very midst of these labors, ** in soliciting subscriptions for 
our convent and temporary church. I have worked hard in my 
life, but this is about the hardest. However, it goes. I had, 
a couple of weeks ago, a donation of $200 from a Protestant. 
Yesterday a subscription of $50 from another. Sursiun Corda 
and go ahead, is my cry ! " And, indeed, he was full of cour- 
age and confidence in the future, all his letters breathing a 
cheerful spirit. 

Before giving Father Hecker's principles for community life, 
which we will do in the next chapter, it may be well to say a 
few words more about the attitude in which he and his com- 
panions had been placed, by the action of the Holy See, toward 
the Catholic idea of authority. 

Just as he was about to sail for America he wrote to his 
brother George: "I return from Rome with my enthusiasm un- 
chilled and my resolution to labor for the conversion of our 
people intensified and strengthened. I feel that the knowledge 
and experience which I have acquired are most necessary for the 
American Fathers in their present deHcate position." And in 
truth his stay in Rome had prepared him for the new respon- 
sibilities in store for him. His sufferings there had purified his 
motives, his humiliations and his anguish had taught him the 
need of reliance, total and loving, on Divine Providence. He 
had studied authority in its chief seat, and he had done so with 
the depth of impression which a man on trial for his life expe- 
riences of the power of the advocates and the dignity of the 
judges. The result of that trial was of infinite benefit. The test 
of genuine liberty is its consonance with lawful authority, and in 
Father Hecker's case the newest liberty had been roughly ar- 
raigned before the most venerable authority known among men, 
tried by fire, and sent forth with Rome's broad seal of ap- 
proval. 

Without doubt the chief endeavor of authority should be to 
win the allegiance of free and aspiring spirits ; but, on the other 
hand, no one should be so firmly convinced of the rights of 
the external order of God as the man who is called to minister 
to the aspirations 01 human liberty. 

No man ought to be so vividly conscious of the prerogatives 
of authority as he who lays claim to a vocation to extol the 
worth of liberty. It was, therefore, fitting that Father Hecker 
should learn his lesson of the prerogatives of the visible Church 



288 The Life of Father Hecker. 

from that teacher who has no master among men. At the same 
time Rome sent forth in the person of Father Hecker a living 
and powerful argument addressed to this Republic, that the 
Catholic Church is worthy of the heartiest allegiance of our 
citizens. 

This providential aspect of the case should not be forgotten. 
When Father Hecker had been expelled from the Redemptorists 
it might have been thought that he was done for, and that if he 
had ever had a mission it had suffered total shipwreck, whether 
deserved or not. But in reality the very reverse was the truth. 
The disgrace of expulsion, the sudden horror of being thus cast 
out, a calamity which set him forth to all Catholics as a ruined 
priest, had but served to bring him into the notice of the su- 
preme authority of the Church. And when in this God had 
wrought all His work His servant was purified within and mightily 
strengthened without. In his inmost soul he was conscious of 
his divine mission with a deeper certitude than ever before ; and 
as he began his apostolate he bore on his arm the buckler of 
Rome, against which all the darts of enemies, if any should arise, 
would strike harmless and fall to the ground. 

It was fitting that the Paulist community, appealing to the 
men and women of to-day with the credentials as well of their own 
individual independence as of the good will of the Pope and the 
Bishops, should be launched into existence from the very deck 
of Peter's bark, and furnished with all the testimonials of eccle- 
siastical authority short of canonical sanction. This was the more 
proper because, in a few years after the beginning of the com- 
munity, European revolutionists were to be scourged with the 
Syllabus, whose every word agonized the souls of unworthy ad- 
vocates of liberty. That Pontifical document has created a liter- 
ature of its own in comment and explanation, some tying more 
knots in every lash and others mitigating its severity or palliating 
the errors it smote with such pitiless rigor. But the best in- 
terpretation of the Syllabus is the Paulist community. It is a 
body of free men whose origin was the joint result of the per- 
sonal workings of the Holy Spirit in the soul of a man who 
loved* civil and political freedom with a mighty love, and the 
decision of the highest court of Catholicity declaring him worthy 
of trust as an exponent of the Christian faith. If the Syllabus 
shows what the Church thinks of those who in tl>e guise of free- 
men are conspirators against religion and public order, the 



Beginnings of the Paulist Community. 



approval of the Paulist community shows the Church's attitude 
towards men worthy to be free. 

Nor was Rome's course chosen without weighing the conse- 
quences, without a full estimate of the public significance of 
the act. Father Hecker's adversaries fixed upon him every 
stigma of radicalism and rebellion possible in a good but de- 
luded priest. For seven long months they poured into ears 
which instinctively feared revolt in the name of liberty, every ac- 
cusation his doings and sayings could be made to give color 
to, in order to prove that he and the American Fathers were 
tainted with false liberalism. And he seemed to lend . himself to 
their purpose. His guileless tongue spoke to the cardinals, pre- 
lates, and professors of Rome about nothing so much as free- 
dom, and its kinship with Catholicity. He seemed to have no 
refuge but the disclosure of the very secrets of his soul. Dur- 
ing those- months of incessant accusation and defence Father 
Hecker talked Rome's high dignitaries into full knowledge of 
himself, until they saw the cause mirrored in the man and gave 
approval to both. Some, like Barnabo, were actuated by the 
quick sympathy of free natures; others, like Pius IX., arrived at 
a decision by the slower processes of the removal of prejudice 
from an honest mind, and the careful comparing of Father 
Hecker's principles with the fundamental truths of religion. 




CHAPTER XXVI. 

FATHER HECKER'S IDEA OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY. 

THE beginnings of the Paulist community having been 
sketched, it is now in order to state the principles with 
which Father Hecker, guided no less by supernatural intuition 
than by enlightened reason, intended it should be inspired; and 
this shall be done as nearly as possible in his own words. The 
following sentences, found in one of his diaries and quoted 
some chapters back, embody what may be deemed his ultimate 
principle: 

'* It is for this we are created : that we may give a new 
and individual expression of the absolute in our own peculiar 
character. As soon as the new is but the re-expression of the 
old, God ceases to live. Ever the mystery is revealed in each 
new birth; so must it be to eternity. The Eternal- Absolute is 
ever creating new forms of expressing itself" 

What the new order of things was to be in the spiritual 
life could be learned, Father Hecker held, by observing men's 
strivings after natural good. The tendencies which shape men's 
efforts to secure happiness in this world, in so far as they are 
innocent, indicated to him what choice of means should be 
made to propagate the knowledge and love of God. According 
to this, the most successful worker for a people's sanctificatioji will 
be kindred to them by conviction and by sympathy in all that 
concerns their poHtical and social life. Men's aspirations in the 
natural order point out the highway of God's representatives. 
As these aspirations change from era to era, so do the main 
lines of religious effort change, the highways of one age becom- 
ing the byways of another. It is true that no method for the 
elevation of human nature to divine union, which the Church 
has sanctioned, ever becomes quite obsolete, but the merest 
glance at the differences between the spiritual characteristics of the 
martyrs, the hermits, the monks, the friars, shows that one form 
of the Christian virtues succeeds another in general possession of 
men's souls. The new spirit, without crowding the old one off its 
beaten track, follows men to the new ways whither the provi- 
dence of God in the natural order has led them. " First the 
natural man," says St. Paul, *' and then the spiritual." Different 

types of spirituality are brought forward by Almighty God to 

390 



Father Hecker's Idea of a Religious Community. 291 

sanctify men in new conditions of life. Among the foremost of 
these are rehgious communities of men and women. Hence their 
duty to adjust themselves, as far as faith and discipline permit, 
to the circumstances of the times. The power of a religious 
community for good will be measured by its ability to elevate 
the natural to the supernatural without shocking it or thwart- 
ing it. 

Now, every one knows that this age differs materially from 
past ones. It differs by a wider spread of education and an 
uncontrollable longing after liberty, civil, political, and personal. 

Father Hecker was penetrated with the belief that the intel- 
ligence and liberty, whose well-ordered enjoyment he had wit- 
nessed in America, and which he loved so deeply himself, were 
divine invitations to the apostolate of the Holy Spirit. He was 
profoundly impressed with the certainty of the development, the 
extension, and the permanence of these political and social 
changes; and he knew that they demanded of men a personal 
independence of character far in advance of previous generations. 
And he knew, also, that for the sanctification of such men the 
aids of religion, though not changed in themselves, must be 
applied in a different spirit. Discipline and uniformity, though 
never to be dispensed with, must yield the first places to more 
interior virtues. The dominant influence must be docility to 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling within every re- 
generate soul. Applying this, towards the end of his life, to 
religious communities. Father Hecker wrote : " The controlling 
thought of my mind for many years has been that a body of 
free men who love God with all their might, and yet know how 
to cling together, could conquer this modern world of ours." The 
sentence may be taken as a brief description of the Paulist com- 
munity as he would have it. And it is easily seen why free men 
loving God with all their hearts are suited to conquer this 
modern world ; because men are determined to be free. 

The following extracts from notes, letters, and diaries more 
fully develop this idea: 

" A new religious order is an evidence and expression of an 
uncommon or special grace given to a certain number of souls, 
so that they may be sanctified by the practice of particular vir- 
tues to meet the special needs of their epoch, and in this way 
to renew the spiritual life of the members of the Church and to 



292 The Life of Father Hecker. 

extend her fold. A new community is this, or it has no reason 
for its existence. The means to accompHsh its special work are 
both new and old. It should lay stress on the new, and not 
despise but also make use of the old. ' The wise householder 
bringeth forth from his treasury new things and old.'" 

** The true Paulist is a religious man entirely dependent on 
God for his spiritual life ; he lives in community for the greater 
security of his own salvation and perfection, and to meet more 
efficiently the pressing needs of the Church and of humanity in 
his day." 

" The Church always finds in her wonderful fecundity where- 
with to supply the new wants which arise in every distinct epoch 
of society." 

'' A new religious community, unless its activity is directed 
chiefly to supplying the special needs of its time, wears itself out 
at the expense of its true mission and will decHne and fail." 

" We must realize the necessity of more explicitly bringing 
out our ideal if we would give a sufficient motive for our students 
and members, keep them in the community, bring about unity 
of action, and accomplish the good which the Holy Spirit demands 
at our hands. A Paulist, as a distinct species of a religious man, is 
one who is alive to the pressing needs of the Church at the present 
time, and feels called to labor specially with the means fitted to 
supply them. And what a member of another religious com- 
munity might do from that divine guidance which is external, the 
Paulist does from the promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit." 

*' A Paulist is a Christian man who aims at a Christian perfec- 
tion consistent with his natural characteristics and the type of 
civilization of his country." 

** So far as it is compatible with faith and piety, I am for 
accepting the American civiHzation with its usages and customs ; 
leaving aside other reasons, it is the only way by which Catholicity 
can become the religion of our people. The character and spirit 
of our people, and their institutions, must find themselves at 
home in our Church in the way those of other nations have done ; 
and it is on this basis alone that the Catholic religion can make 
progress in our country." 

" What we need to-day is men whose spirit is that of the 
early martyrs. We shall get them in proportion as Catholics 
cultivate a spirit of independence and personal conviction. The 
highest development of religion in the soul is when it is assisted 



Fatlier Hecker's Idea of a Religions Community . 293 

by free contemplation of the ultimate causes of things. Intelli- 
gence and liberty are the human environments most favorable 
to the deepening of personal conviction of religious truth, and 
obedience to the interior movements of an enlightened con- 
science. To a well-ordered mind the question of the hour is 
how the soul which aspires to the supernatural life shall utilize 
the advantages of liberty and intelligence." 

** The form of government of the United States is preferable 
to Catholics above other forms. It is more favorable than 
others to the practice of those virtues which are the necessary 
conditions of the development of the religious hfe of man. This 
government leaves men a larger margin for Hberty of action, 
and hence for co-operation with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
than any other government under the sun. With these popular 
institutions men enjoy greater liberty in working out their true 
destiny. The Catholic Church will, therefore, flourish all the 
more in this republican country in proportion as her representa- 
tives keep, in their civil life, to the lines of their republicanism." 

** The two poles of the Paulist character are : first, personal 
perfection. He must respond to the principles of perfection as 
laid down by spiritual writers. The backbone of a religious 
community is the desire for personal perfection actuating its 
members. The desire for personal perfection is the foundation 
stone of a rehgious community ; when this fails, it crumbles to 
pieces; when this ceases to be the dominant desire, the com- 
munity is tottering. Missionary works, parochial work, etc., are 
and must be made subordinate to personal perfection. These 
works must be done in view of personal perfection. The main 
purpose of each Paulist must be the attainment of personal per- 
fection by the practice of those virtues without which it cannot 
be secured — mortification, self-denial, detachment, and the like. 
By the use of these means the grace of God makes the soul 
perfect. The perfect soul is one which is guided instinctively by 
the indwelling Holy Spirit. To attain to this is the end always 
to be aimed at in the practice of the virtues just named. 
Second, zeal for souls; to labor for the conversion of the 
country to the Catholic faith by apostolic work. Parish work is 
a part, an integral part, of Pauhst work, but not its principal or 
chief work- and parish work should be done so as to form a 
part of the main aim, the conversion oi the non-Catholic 
people of the country. In this manner we can labor to raise 



294 The Life of Father Hecker. 

the standard of Catholic Hfe here and throughout the world as a 
means of the general triumph of the Catholic faith." 

** I do not thiiik that the principal characteristic of our 
Fathers and of our life should be poverty or obedience or any 
other special and secondary virtue, or even a cardinal virtue, 
but zeal for apostolic works. Oar vocation is apostolic — conver- 
sion of souls to the faith, of sinners to repentance, giving mis- 
sions, defence of the Christian religion by conferences, lectures, 
sermons, the pen, the press, and the Hke works ; and in the 
interior, to propagate among men a higher and more spiritual 
life. To supply the special element the age and -each country 
demands, this is the peculiar work of religious communities : this 
their field. It is a fatal mistake when rehgious attempt to do 
the ordinary work of the Church. Let religious practise prayer 
and study ; there will always be enough of the work to which 
they are called.'' 

" Are the Paulists Religious ? Yes, and no. Yes, of their 
age. No, of the past ; the words in neither case being taken in 
an exclusive meaning." 

'* As regards the growth of the Paulist, he must develop in 
an apostolic vocation — that is, in apostolic works. Catholic, uni- 
versal; not in works which confine his life's energies to a 
locality. He must do the work of the Church. The work of 
the Church, as Church, is to render her note of universality 
more and more conspicuous — to render it sensible, palpable. 
This is the spirit of the Church in our country," 

The following refers to the second trait of the character 
above given : ''A Paulist is to emphasize individuality ; that is, 
to make individual liberty an essential element in every judg- 
ment that touches the life and welfare of the community and that 
of its members. Those who emphasize the community element 
are inclined to look upon this as a dangerous and impracticable 
experiment." 

" Individuality is an integral ajid conspicuous elemejtt in the 
life of the Paulist. This must be felt. One of the natural signs 
of the true Paulist is that he would prefer to suffer from the 
exccbses of liberty rather than from the arbitrary actions of 
tyranny." 

" The individuality of a man cannot be too strong or his lib- 
erty too great when he is guided by the Spirit of God. But 
wlicn one is easily influenced from below rather than from above. 



Father Hecker's Idea of a Religious Community. 295 



it is an evidence of the spirit of pride and that of the flesh, and 
not 'the liberty of the glory of the children of God.' " 

What follows touches the relation between the personal and 
common life : 

" Many other communities lay the main stress on community 
life as the chief element, giving it control as far as is consistent 
with fundamental individual right ; the Paulists, on the contrary, 
give the element of individuality the first place and put it in 
control as far as is consistent with the common life." 

** The spirit of the age has a tendency to run into extreme 
individuality, into eccentricity, license, revolution. But the typical 
life shows how individuality is consistent with community life. 
This is the aim of the United States in the poHtical order, an 
aim and tendency which we have to guide, and not to check or 
sacrifice." 

" The element of individuality is taken into account in the 
Paulist essejitially, integrally, practical!}'. But when it comes into 
conflict with the common right, the individual must yield to the 
community : the common life outranks the individual life in case 
of conflict. But the individual life should be regarded as sacred 
and never be effaced. How this is to operate in particular cases 
belongs, where it is not a matter of rule, to the virtue of pru- 
dence to decide." 

" When the personality of the individual comes into conflict 
with the life of the community, the personal side must not be 
sacrificed, but made to yield to the common. In case of con- 
flict, as before said, common life and interests outrank personal 
life and interests. It may be asked how, in the ordinary regu- 
lation and government of a community of this kind, the individ- 
ual and common elements are to be made to harmonize ? The 
answer is, that the one at the head of affairs must be a true 
Paulist — that is to say, keenly sensitive of personal rights as well 
as appreciative of such as are common : where the question is 
not a point of rule, its decision is dependent on the practical 
sagacity and prudence of the superior more than on any minute 
regulations which can be given. He who interprets the acts of 
legitimate authority as an attack on his personal liberty, is as far 
out of the way as he who looks upon the exercise of reason as 
an attack on authority." 

" How about persons of dull minds or of little spiritual am- 



296 The Life of Father Hecker. 

bition coming into the use of this freedom ? First, no such per- 
son should be allowed to enter into the community : such persons 
should be excluded. Second, a full-fledged Paulist should have 
passed a long enough novitiate to have acquired the special vir- 
tues which are necessary for his vocation. Absence of superna- 
tural light is the cause why a man is not fit to be a Paulist, 
for he cannot understand rightly or appreciate the value of the 
liberties he enjoys. He either is or he becomes a turbulent element 
in the community." 

"A Paulist, seeing that he has so much individuality, should 
have a strong, nay, a very strong attrait for community life ; he 
should be fond of the Fathers' company, prefer them and their 
society when seeking proper recreation, feel the house to be 
his home and the community and its surroundings very dear to 
him ; in the routine of the day all the community exercises and 
labors are, in his judgment, of paramount obligation and im- 
portance. 

" The civil and political state of things of our age, particularly 
in the United States, fosters the individual life. But it should 
do so without weakening the community life : this is true indi- 
vidualism. The problem is to make the synthesis. The joint 
product is the Paulist." 

"A Paulist should cultivate personal freedom without detri- 
ment to the community spirit ; and, vice versa, the community 
spirit should not be allowed to be detrimental to personal free- 
dom. But when the individual life runs into eccentricity, license, 
and revolution, that is a violation and sacrifice of the commu- 
nity life." 

" The duty of the Paulist Superior is to elicit the spontaneous 
zeal of the Fathers and to further it with his authority. For lack 
of one's own initiative that of another may be used, and herein 
the Superior ofiers a constant help. But the centre of action is 
individual, is in the soul moved by the Holy Ghost ; not in the 
Superior of the community or in the authorities of the Church. 
And if he be moved by the Holy Spirit, he will be most obedient 
to his superior ; and he will not only be submissive to the authority 
of the Church, but careful to follow out her spirit." 

In explaining the routine of daily life Father Hecker said : 
"The member of a community who does not make the common 
exercises [of religion] his first care is derelict of his duty, A 
common exercise should be preferred to all other devotional prac- 



Father Hecker s Idea of a Religions Community. 297 

tices or occupations whatever; as far as possible all other ex- 
ercises ought to be made subordinate to common ones, which 
should never be omitted without permission of the superior.'* 

Father Hecker was once asked : " Which w^ould you prefer : to 
have a rule and manner of life adapted to a large number of men, 
embracing many of a uniform type, men good enough for average 
work, intended to include and seeking to retain persons of medi- 
ocre spirit, and having a dim understanding of our peculiar insti- 
tute ? or would you prefer the rule to be made only for a select 

body, composed of such men as and , and the like ? ' '* 

[Answer:] "I should prefer the rule to be made for the smaller 
and more select body of men. Religious vocations are not com- 
mon, but special. It is a fatal mistake for religious to take the 
place of secular priests." 

No one can be misled by what he has read in the foregoing 
pages into the notion that Father Hecker had any other aim than 
the entire consecration of liberty and intelligence to the influence 
of the Holy Spirit. To know Father Hecker well was to be more 
deeply impressed with his longing for the reign of the Spirit of God 
in men's souls than even with his love of human liberty. In his 
esteem the worth of the latter was altogether in proportion to its 
aptitude for the former. His love of liberty was that of a means 
to an end — the perfect oblation of the inner man to God. He 
aimed at individuality because of his belief in the action of the 
Holy Ghost in the individual soul. Such action, he was quick to 
maintain, is given to every Christian, but it is to be looked for in 
a high degree in those who are called by a special vocation to 
assist independent characters to find the spirit of God within 
them ; or, if already known, to obey His direction implicitly. 
Paulists after Father Hecker's heart would be men whom experi- 
ence and study had rendered fit instruments for disseminating the 
knowledge of the ways of God the Holy Ghost in men's hearts ; 
for instructing the faithful how to distinguish the voice of God 
in the soul from the vagaries of the imagination or the emotions 
of passion, and able to stimulate a ready and generous response 
to every call of God from within. 

It is because of this indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every 
regenerate soul that Father Hecker so vigorously maintained that 
the freedom of the individual is a golden opportunity for the 
Catholic apostolate, according to the text " Where the Spirit of 



298 The Life of Father Hecker. 

the Lord is, there is liberty." Freedom, he affirmed, was in ab- 
solute consonance with Catholic doctrine. But he furthermore 
insisted that it has become the world-wide aspiration of men by- 
interposition of Divine Providence and with a view to their higher 
sanctification ; and however grossly abused, it is yet a direct 
suggestion to an apostolate whose prospects are in the highest 
degree promising. And this is the answer to the question 
which reasonable persons may well ask, namely : Why should 
the new institution differ so radically from the old ones, which 
were certainly works of God ? Because the change of men's 
lives in the entire secular and natural order is in the direction 
of personal liberty and independence, and this change is a radi- 
cal one. "The Eternal- Absolute is ever creating new forms of 
expressing itself." If, indeed, men's aspirations for liberty and 
intelligence be all from the powers of darkness, then let every 
longing for freedom be repressed and condemned, crushed by 
authority in the state, anathematized by the Church. But if 
men are yearning to be free, however blindly, because God 
by their freedom would make them holier, then let us hail the 
new order as a blessing ; and let those who love freedom and 
are worthy of it use its privileges to advance themselves and 
their brethren nearer to immediate union with the Holy Spirit. 

It has been seen that the important question whether the 
end of the new community would be better attained with the 
usual religious vows or without them was decided in the nega- 
tive. They were not definitely rejected in the beginning ; but 
starting without them, the Fathers were willing to allow expe- 
rience to show whether or not they should be resumed. The 
lapse of time but confirmed the view that the voluntary agreement 
and the bond of fraternal charity were, under the circumstances, 
preferable as securities for stability and incentives to holiness. 

There can be little doubt that Father Hecker's ideas on 
this feature of the religious state had been greatly modified be- 
tween the writing of the Qitestio7is of the Soul and the end of 
the struggle in Rome. Much is said in that book of commun- 
ity life in the Catholic Church, and generally as rendered stable 
and its spirit of sacrifice made complete by the vows ; and in 
the statement given in Rome to his five chosen advisers, he 
says that one reason for writing the volume named was to in- 
duce young men to enter the religious orders as the only means 
of perfection — meaning orders under vows. But when he was 



Father Heckers Idea of a Religions Community. 299 



released from his own obligations and was confronted with the 
choice of means for following his vocation, the horizon broaden- 
ed away until he could see beyond the institutions and tra- 
ditions in which he had lived since entering the novitiate at St. 
Trond. His ideas of perfection in its relation to states of life 
underwent a change. Therefore he said, Let us wait for the 
unmistakable will of God before we bind ourselves with vows 
amidst a free people. He never depreciated the evident value 
of these obligations ; indeed, he seldom was heard to speak of 
them. But he knew from close observation the truth of the 
words of the Jesuit Avancinus : 

" The net (St. Matthew xiii. 44) is the Catholic Church, 
or, to take a narrower view, it means the station in which you 
are placed. As in a net all kinds of fish are to be found, so in 
your position, as in all others, there are good and bad Chris- 
tians. .' . . Should yours be a sacred calling, you are not, on 
that account, either the better or the more secure ; your sanctity 
and your salvation depend on yourself, not on your calling." 
{Meditations, Fourteenth Friday after Pentecost.) 

It never entered into the minds of the Fathers to question 
the doctrine and practice of the Church concerning vows. But 
personal experience proves the lesson of history, that what re- 
ligion needs is not so much holy states of hfe as holy men and 
women. 

Looking back into the past. Father Hecker saw St. Philip 
Neri, to whom he had a great devotion and for whose spiritual 
doctrine he had a high admiration. The following is from an 
exponent of that doctrine, and is much in point: 

. "■ Although our Fathers and lay brothers [Oratorians] make 
no vow of obedience, as do religious, they are, nevertheless, no 
way inferior in the perfection of this virtue to those who profess 
it in the cloister with solemn vows. They supply the want of 
vows with love, with voluntary promptitude, and perfection in 
obeying every wish of the superior. And it is a thing for 
which we must indeed thank God, that without the obligation 
of obeying under pain of sin, without fear of restraint or other 
punishment (except that of expulsion in case of contumacy), all 
the subjects are prompt in this obedience, even in things most 
humihating and severe, according to the terms of the rule. All 
take pleasure in meeting the wishes of the superior, etc." ^The 
Excellences of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, p. 136. London: 
Burns & Gates) 



300 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Father Hecker did not dream that by relinquishing the vows 
he and his companions in the Paulist community had cast away 
a single incentive to virtue capable of moving such men as they, 
or had even failed to secure any of the insignia adorning the 
great host of men and women in the Catholic Church whose 
entire being has been given up to the divine service. ** The true 
Paulist," said he once, ''should be fit and ^eady to take the 
solemn vows at any moment." He felt strongly the truth of the 
following words of the Jesuit Lallemant : 

*'A desire and hunger after our perfection, a determined will 
to be constantly tending towards it with all our strength — let this 
be always our chief object and our greatest care. Let us bear in 
mind that this care is more of the essence of religion \i.e., of a 
religious order] than vows themselves ; for it is on this that our 
whole spiritual progress depends. Herein consists the difference 
between true religious and those who are so only in appearance 
and in the sight of men. Without this care to advance in per- 
fection the religious state does not secure our salvation ; but 
nothing is more common than to deceive ourselves on this point." 
{The Spiritual Doctrine of Father Louis Lallema7tt, S.J., p. iii. 
New York: Sadlier & Co.) 

With regard to stability, men of stable character need no 
vow to guarantee adherence to a divine vocation, and men of 
feeble character may indeed vow themselves into an outward 
stability, but it is of little fruit to themselves personally, and 
their irremovabihty is often of infinite distress to their superi- 
ors and brethren. The eipiscopate is the one religious order 
founded by Our Lord, and its members are in the highest state 
of evangelical perfection ; yet they are neither required nor advised 
to take the oaths or vows of religious orders. 

Neither Father Hecker nor any of his associates had the least 
aversion to the vows. On the contrary, they had lived con- 
tentedly under them for many of their most active years, and it 
will be remembered of Father Hecker that he never found them 
irksome, had never known a temptation against them. 

The question which arose was a choice between two kinds 
of community, the one fast bound by external obligations to the 
Church in the form of vows, placing the members in a relation of 
peculiar strictness to the Canon Law ; or another kind, in which 
the members trusted wholly to the strength of Divine grace, and 
their own conscious purpose never to give up the fight for per- 



Father Heckers Idea of a Religions Community. 301 

fection ; which of these states would better facilitate the action 
of the Holy Spirit in the present Providence of God; and 
which of them would tend to produce a type of character 
fitted to evangelize a nation of independent and self-reliant men 
and women ? The free community was chosen. 

No doubt this involved some risk of criticism, particularly in 
the beginning, for it was a wonder to many that men should 
organize for a life -long endeavor after perfection and not 
swear to it, especially as none of the free communities existing 
in Europe had houses in America, for the Sulpitians belong to 
the secular clergy. And there was also danger of unworthy 
subjects creeping in under favor of a freedom they were unfit 
to enjoy. For it may be reproached against us that we are 
apt to be victimized by men ruled by caprice, indulging in 
extravagant schemes or deluded by wandering fancies ; and also 
by superiors who would let everybody do as he pleased. No 
doubt such dangers are to be guarded against. But vowed 
communities do not claim to be free from difficulties. No state 
of life and no organization claims to be so perfect as totally to 
prevent abuse of power on the part of superiors or caprice and 
sloth on the part of members. 

Both kinds of organized religious life have their difficulties : 
the one, the martinet superior and the routine subject ; the other, 
the capricious subject and the lax superior. In one kind the 
bond of union as well as the stimulus of endeavor is mainly obe- 
dience, fraternal charity assisting ; in the other it is mainly fra- 
ternal charity, obedience assisting ; each has to overcome obsta- 
cles peculiar to itself 

What has been said in this chapter, besides serving to exhibit 
Father Hecker's principles as a founder, will be, we trust, a suffi- 
cient answer to the silly delusion which the Paulists have encoun- 
tered in some quarters, that their society tolerates a soft life and 
supposes in its members no high vocation to perfection ; or that 
the voluntary principle allows them a personal choice in regard to 
the devotional exercises, permitting them to attend or not attend 
this or that meditation or devotion laid down in the rule, as " the 
spirit moves them." This is as plain an error as another one 
which had much currency for years and which is not yet every- 
where corrected : that the Paulist community was open to con- 
verts alone and received none others. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

FATHER HECKER'S SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE. 

HAVING given in the preceding chapter Father Hecker's prin- 
ciples of the rehgious Hfe in community, a more general view 
of his spiritual doctrine, as well as of his method of the direction 
of souls, naturally follows. And here we are embarrassed by the 
amount of matter to choose from ; for as he was always talking 
about spiritual doctrine to whomsoever he could get to listen, so in 
his pubHshed writings, in his letters to intimate friends, and in 
his notes and memoranda, we have found enough falling under 
the heading of this chapter to fill a volume. Let us hope for 
its publication some day. 

It need hardly be said that Father Hecker did not claim to 
have any new doctrine ; there can be none, and he knew it well. 
Every generation since Christ has had His entire revelation. 
Development is the word which touches the outer margin of all 
possible adaptation of Christian principles to the changing condi- 
tions of humanity. But in the transmission of these principles from 
master to disciple, in practically assisting in their use by public 
instruction, or by private advice, or by choice of devotional and 
ascetical exercises, there is as great a variety of method as of 
temperament among races, and even among individuals ; and 
there are broadly marked differences which are conterminous 
with providential eras of history. This was a truth which Father 
Hecker, in common with all discerning minds, took carefully 
into account. 

His fundamental principle of Christian perfection may be 

termed a view of the Catholic doctrine of divine grace suited 

to the aspirations of our times. By divine grace the love of 

God is diffused in our hearts ; the Holy Spirit takes up his abode 

there and makes us children of the Heavenly Father, and brethren 

of Jesus Christ the Divine Son. The state of grace is thus an 

immediate union of the soul with the Holy Trinity, its Creator, 

Mediator, and Sanctifier. To secure this union and render it 

more and more conscious was Father Hecker's ceaseless endeavor 

through life, both for himself and for those who fell under his 

influence, whether in cleansing the soul of all hindrances of sin 

and imperfection, or advancing it deeper and deeper into the 

divine life by prayer and the sacraments. 

30a 



Father Heckers Spiritual Doctrine, 303 

His doctrine of Christian perfection might be formulated as a 
profession of faith : I believe in God the Father Almighty ; I 
beheve in Jesus Christ the Only Begotten Son of the Father; I 
believe in the Holy Ghost the Life Giver, the spirit of adop- 
tion by whom I am enabled to say to the Father, My Father, 
and to the Son, My Brother. 

He wished that men generally should be made aware of the 
immediate nature of this union of the soul with God, and that 
they should become more and more personally conscious of it. 
He would bring this about without the intervention of other 
persons or other methods than the divinely constituted ones 
accessible to all in the priesthood and sacraments. It was the 
development of the supernatural, heavenly, divine life of the re- 
generate man, born again of the Holy Ghost, that Father Hecker 
made the end of all he said and all he did in leading souls ; 
and he maintained that to partake of this life which is " the light 
of men," many souls needed little interference on the part of 
others, and that in every case the utmost care should be taken 
lest the soul should mingle human influences, even the holiest, 
in undue proportion with those which were strictly divine. 

" Go to God," he wrote to one asking advice, ''go entirely to 
God, go integrally to God ; behold, that is sincerity, complete, 
perfect sincerity. Do that, and make it a complete, continuous act, 
and you need no help from me or any creature. I wish to 
provoke you to do it. That is my whole aim and desire. Just 
in proportion as we harbor pride, vanity, self-love — in a word, 
self-hood — ^just so far we fail in integrally resigning ourselves to 
God. Were we wholly resigned to God He would change all in 
us that is in discord with Him, and prepare our souls for union 
with Him, making us one with Himself God longs for our 
souls greatly more than our souls can long for Him. Such is 
God's thirst for love that He made all creatures to love Him, 
and to have no rest until they love Him supremely. If my 
words are not to your soul God's words and voice, pay no heed 
to them. If they are, hesitate not a moment to obey. If they 
humble you to the dust, what a blessing ! He that is humbled 
shall be exalted." 

" Peace is gained by a wise inaction, and strength by integral 
resignation to God, who will do all, and more than we, with 
the boldest imagination, can fancy or desire." 



304 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" May you see God in all, through all, and above all. May 
the Divine transcendence and the Divine immanence be the 
two poles of your life." 

The natural faculties of the understanding and will, whose 
integrity Father Hecker so much valued, were to be established 
in a new life infinitely abo\^e their native reach, glorified with 
divine life, their activity directed to the knowledge of things not 
even dreamed of before, and endowed with a divine gift of 
loving. In this state the Holy Spirit communicates to the 
human faculties force to accomplish intellectual and moral feats 
which naturally can be accomplished by God alone. This is 
called by theologians supernatural infused virtue, and is rooted 
in Faith, Hope, and Love, is made efficacious by spiritual gifts 
of wisdom and understanding, and knowledge and counsel, and 
other gifts and forces, the conscious and daily possession of 
which the Christian is entitled to hope for and strive after, and 
finally to obtain and enjoy in this life. 

That this union is a personal relation, and that it should be 
a distinctly conscious one on the soul's part, all will admit who 
think but a moment of the infinite, loving activity of the Spirit 
of God, and the natural and supernatural receptivity of the 
spirit of man. Although not even the smallest germ of the 
supernatural life is found in nature, yet the soul of man cease- 
lessly, if blindly, yearns after its possession. Once possessed, the 
life of God blends into our own, mingles with it and is one 
with it, impregnating it as magnetism does the iron of the lode- 
stone, till the divine qualities, without suppressing nature, en- 
tirely possess it, and assert for it and over it the Divine 
individuality. *' Now I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'* 
An author much admired by Father Hecker thus describes the 
effects produced in the soul by supernatural faith, and hope, and 
love: 

'* These virtues are called and in reality are Divme virtues. 
They are called thus not because they are related to God in 
general, but because they unite us iii a divine ina7iHer with 
God, have Him for their immediate motive, and can be produced 
in us only by a communication of the Divine nature. 
For the life that the children of God lead here upon earth 
must be of the same kind as the life that awaits them in 
heaven." (Scheeben's Glories of Divine Grace, p. 222 ; Benziger 
Bros.) 



Father Heckers Spiritual Doctrine. 305 

To partake thus of the inner Hfe of God was Father Hecker's 
one spiritual ambition, and to help others to it his one motive 
for deaHng with men. He was ever insisting upon the closeness 
of the divine union, and that it is our Hfe brought into actual 
touch with God, whose supreme and essential activity must, by 
a law of its own existence, make itself felt, dominate as far as 
permitted the entire activity of the soul, and win more and 
more upon its Hfe till all is won. Then are fulfiHed the 
Apostle's words : '* But we all beholding the glory of the Lord 
with open face are transformed into the same image from glory 
to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord " (II. Cor. iii. 18). 

Here are some of Father Hecker's words, printed but a year 
or two before his death, which treat not only of the interior 
Hfe in general, but in particular of its relation to the outer 
action of God on the soul through the divine organism of the 
Church : - 

*' St. Thomas Aquinas attributes the absence of spiritual joy 
mainly to neglect of consciousness of the inner life. * During 
this life,' he says [Opicsctila de Beatitudine, cap. iii.), 'we should 
continually rejoice in God, as something perfectly fitting, in all 
our actions and for all . our actions, in all our gifts and for all 
our gifts. It is, as Isaias declares, that we may particularly 
enjoy him that the Son of God has been given to us. What 
blindness and what gross stupidity for many who are always 
seeking God, always sighing for Him, frequently desiring Him, 
daily knocking and clamoring at the door for God by prayer, 
while they themselves are all the time, as the apostle says, 
temples of the living God, and God truly dwelling within them; 
while all the time their souls are the abiding-place of God, 
wherein He continually reposes ! Who but a fool would look 
for something out of doors which he knows he has within ? 
What is the good of anything which is always to be sought and 
never found, and who can be strengthened with food ever 
craved but never tasted ? Thus passes away the life of many a 
good man, always searching and never finding God, and it is 
for this reason that his actions are imperfect' 

**A man with such a doctrine must cultivate mainly the in- 
terior life. His answer to the question. What is the relation 
between the inner and the outer action of God upon my soul ? 
is that God uses the outer for the sake of the inner life. 



3o6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" There seems to be little danger nowadays of our losing 
sight of the Divine authority and the Divine action in the gov- 
ernment of the Church, and in the aids of religion conveyed 
through the external order of the sacraments. Yet it is only 
after fully appreciating the life of God within us that we learn 
to prize fittingly the action of God in His external Providence. 
Such is the plain teaching of St. Thomas in the extract above 
given. 

" By fully assimilating this doctrine one comes to aim stead- 
ily at securing a more and more direct communion with God. 
Thus he does not seek merely for an external Hfe in an external 
society, or become totally absorbed In external observances ; but 
he seeks the invisible God through the visible Church, for she 
is the body of Christ the Son of God. 

'* Once a man's hand is safe on the altar his eye and voice 
are lifted to God. 

*' It is not to keep up a strained outlook for times and 
moments of the interior visitations, but to wait calmly for the 
actual movements of the Divine Spirit ; to rely mainly upon it 
and not solely upon what leads to it, or communicates it, or 
guarantees its genuine presence by necessary external tests and 
symbols. 

*'Not an anxious search, least of all a craving for extraordin- 
ary hgbts; but a constant readiness to perceive the Divine guidance 
in the secret ways of the soul, and then to act with decision 
and a noble and generous courage — this is true wisdom. 

" The Holy Spirit is thus the inspiration of the inner life of 
the regenerate man, and in that life is his Superior and Director. 
That His guidance may become more and more immediate in an 
interior life, and the soul's obedience more and more instinctive, 
is the object of the whole external order of the Church, includ- 
ing the sacramental system. 

" Says Father Lallemant {Spiritual Doctrine, 3d principle, chap. 
i. art. i) : * All creatures that are in the world, the whole order of 
nature as well as that of grace, and all the leadings of Provi- 
dence, have been so disposed as to remove from our souls what- 
ever is contrary to God.' " 

What follows has been culled from notes and memoranda: 

'* When authority and liberty are intelligently understood, 
when both aim at the same end, then the universal reign of 



Father Heckers Spiritual Doctrine. 307 

God's authority in the Church will be near and the kingdom of 
God be established universally." 

" The whole future of the human race depends on bringing 
the individual soul more completely and perfectly under the 
sway of the Holy Spirit." 

"What society most needs to-day is the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit." 

**That soul is perfect which is guided habitually by the 
instinct of the Holy Spirit." 

** The aim of Christian perfection is the guidance of the soul 
by the indwelHng Holy Spirit. This is attained, ordinarily, first 
by bringing whatever is inordinate in our animal propensities 
under the control of the dictates of reason by the practice of 
mortification and self-denial ; for it is a self-evident principle that 
a rational being ought to be master of his animal appetites. And 
second, by bringing the dictates of reason under the control and 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit by recollection, and by fidelity and 
docility to its movements." 

**To attain to the spiritual estate of the conscious guidance 
of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the practice of asceticism and of 
the natural and Christian moral virtues are the preparatory 
means." 

** To rise before the light appears, is vain ; to hinder the 
soul from rising when it does appear, is oppression. In the 
first place, the soul is exposed to delusions ; in the second, it is 
subjected to arbitrary human authority. The former opens the 
door to all sorts of extravagances and heresies ; the latter breeds 
a spirit of servility and bondage." 

"To reach that stage of the spiritual life which is the con- 
sciousness of the indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit 
some souls need the practice of asceticism more than others, 
these latter being more advanced by the practice of the Christian 
virtues. Others, again, need the strenuous practice of both of 
these means of advancement until the close of their lives. And 
there is another class which reaches this degree of spiritual 
growth sooner and with less difficulty than the generality of souls." 

" Whenever the guidance of the Holy Spirit is sufficiently 
recognized, then the practice of the virtues immediately related 
to this action and proper to increase it in the soul are to be 
recommended, such as recollection, purity of heart, docility and 
fidelity to the inner voice, and the like." 



3o8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" It should ever be kept in view that the practice of the 
virtues is not only for their own sake and to obtain merit, but 
mainly in order to remove all obstacles in the way of the guid- 
ance of the Holy Spirit, and to assist the soul in following His 
operations with docility." 

"■ Obedience in its spiritual aspect divests one of self-will and 
makes him prompt to submit to the will of God alone. Viewed 
as an act of justice, obedience is the payment of due service to 
one's superior, who holds his office by appointment of God." 

"The essential mistake of the transcendentalists is the taking 
for their guide the instincts of the soul instead of the inspira- 
tions of the Holy Spirit. They are moved by the natural 
instincts of human beings instead of the instinct of the Holy 
Ghost. But true spiritual direction consists in discovering the 
obstacles in the way of the Divine guidance, in aiding and en- 
couraging the penitent to remove them, and in teaching how 
the interior movements of the Holy Spirit may be recognized, 
as well as in stimulating the soul to fidelity and docility to His 
movements." 

**The director is not to take the place of the Holy Ghost in 
the soul, but to assist His growth in the soul as its primary and 
supreme guide." 

" The primary worker of the soul's sanctification is the Holy 
Spirit acting interiorly ; the work of the director is secondary 
and subordinate. To overlook this fundamental truth in the 
spiritual life is a great mistake, whether it be on the part of the 
director or the one under direction." 

The great obstacle to the prevalent use of this privilege of 
divine interior direction is lack of practical realization of its ex- 
istence by good Christians. And this want of faith is met with 
almost as much among teachers as among learners, resulting in 
too great a mingling of the human clement in the guidance of 
souls. What is known as over- direction is to be attributed, as 
Father Hecker was persuaded, to confessors leading souls by 
self-chosen ways, or laboriously working them along the road to 
perfection by artificial processes, souls whom the Holy Spirit has 
not made ready for more than the beginning of the spiritual life. 
This is like pressing wine out of unripe grapes. Another prac- 
tice which Father Hecker often deprecated was the binding of 
free and generous souls with all sorts of obligations in the 



Father Hecker's Spiritual Doctrine. 309 

way of devotional exercises. This is forcing athletes to go on 
crutches. The excuse for it all is that it really does stagger 
human belief to accept as a literal matter of fact that God the 
Holy Ghost personally comes to us with divine grace and gives 
Himself to us ; that He actually and essentially dwells in our 
souls by grace, and in an unspeakably intimate manner takes 
charge of our entire being, soul and body, and all our faculties 
and senses. 

'* By sanctifying grace," says St. Thomas (p. i, q. xxxiii. 
art. 2), " the rational creature is thus perfected, that it may 
not only use with liberty the created good, but that it may also 
enjoy the uncreated good ; and therefore the invisible sending of 
the Holy Ghost takes place in the gift of sanctifying grace and 
the Divine Person Himself is given to us." 

It is the soul's higher self, thus in entire union with the 
Spirit of God, that Father Hecker spent his life in cultivating, 
both in his own interior and in that of others. He insisted that 
in the normal condition of things the mainspring of virtue, both 
natural and supernatural, should be for the regenerate man the 
instinctive obedience of the individual soul to the voice of the 
indwelling Holy Spirit. 

To what an extent this inner divine guidance has been 
obscured by more external methods is witnessed by Monsignor 
Gaume, who places upon the title-page of his learned work on 
the Holy Spirit the motto " Ignoto Deo " — to the Unknown God ! 

Objections to this doctrine are made from the point of view 
of caution. There is danger of exaggeration, it is said ; for if in 
its terms it is plainly Catholic, it may sound Protestant to some 
ears. And in fact to those whose glances have been ever turned 
outward for guidance it seems Hke the delusions of certain 
classes of Protestants about "change of heart" and ''inner light." 

" But," says Lallemant (and the reader will thank us for 
a detailed reply to this difficulty from so venerable an authority), 
"it is of faith that without the grace of an interior inspiration, in 
which the guidance of the Holy Spirit consists, we cannot do 
any good work. The Calvinists would determine everything by 
their inward spirit, subjecting thereto the Church herself and 
her decisions. . . . But the guidance which we receive from 
the Holy Ghost by means of His gifts presupposes the faith 
and authority of the Church, acknowledges them as its rule, 
admits nothing which is contrary to them, and aims only at per- 



3 1 o The Life of Father Hecker. 



fecting the exercise of faith and the other virtues. The second 
objection is, that it seems as if this interior guidance of the Holy 
Spirit were destructive of the obedience due to superiors. We 
reply: i. That as the interior inspiration of grace does not set 
aside the assent which we give to the articles of faith as they are 
externally proposed to us, but on the contrary gently disposes 
the mind to beHeve ; in Hke manner the guidance which we 
receive from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, far from interfering 
with obedience, aids and facilitates the practice of it. 2. That 
all this interior guidance, and even [private] divine revelations, 
must always be subordinate to obedience ; and in speaking 
of them this tacit condition is ever implied, that obedience en- 
joins nothing contrary thereto. 

** The third objection is that this interior direction of the 
Holy Spirit seems to render all deliberation and all counsel 
useless. For why ask advice of men when the Holy Spirit is 
Himself our director ? We reply that the Holy Spirit teaches us 
to consult enlightened persons and to follow the advice of others, 
as He referred St. Paul to Ananias. The fourth objection is 
made by some who complain that they are not themselves thus 
led by the Holy Spirit, and that they know nothing of it. To 
theai we reply: i. That the Hghts and inspirations of the 
Holy Spirit, which are necessary in order to do good and avoid 
evil, are never wanting to them, particularly if they are in a 
state of grace. 2. That being altogether exterior as they are, 
and scarcely ever entering into themselves, examining their con- 
sciences only very superficially, and looking only to the outward 
man and the faults which are manifest in the eyes of the world, 
it is no wonder that they have nothing of the guid- 
ance oi the Holy Spirit, which is wholly interior. But, first, let 
them be faithful in following the light which is given them ; it 
will go on always increasing. Secondly, let them clear away 
the sins and imperfections which, like so many clouds, hide the 
light from their eyes : they will see more distinctly every day. 
Thirdly, let them not suffer their exterior senses to rove at will, 
and be soiled by indulgence ; God will then open to them their 
interior senses. Fourthly, let them never quit their own interior, 
if it be possible, or let them return as soon as may be ; let them 
give attention to what passes therein, and they will observe the 
workings of the different spirits by which we are actuated. 
Fifthly, let them lay bare the whole ground of their heart to 
their superior or to their spiritual father. A soul which acts 
with this openness and simplicity can hardly fail of being favored 
with the direction of the Holy Spirit" {Spiritual Doctrine, 4th 
principle, ch. i. art. 3). 

Father Heckcr had himself suffered, and that in the earliest 



Father Heckers Spiritual Doctrine. 311 

days of his religious life, from want of explicit instruction 
about this doctrine. Father Othmann, whom our readers remem- 
ber as the novice-master at St Trond, was too spiritual a man to 
have been ignorant of its principles. Yet he seemed to think 
that either no one would choose it in preference to the method 
in more common use, or that he would not find his novices ready 
for it. But to Father Hecker it was all-essential. " When I 
was not far from being through with my noviceship," he was 
heard to say, ** I was one day looking over the books in the 
library and I came across Lallemant's Spiritual Doctrijie. Getting 
leave to read it, I was overjoyed to find it a full statement of 
the principles by which I had been interiorly guided. I said to 
Pere Othmann : ' Why did you not give me this book when I 
first came? It settles all my difficulties.' But he answered that 
it had never once occurred to his mind to do so." Besides the 
Scriptures, Lallemant, Surin, Scaramelli's Directoritcm Mysticum, 
the ascetical and mystical writings of the contemplatives, such as 
Rusbruck, Henry Suso (whose hfe he carried for years in his 
pocket, reading it daily), Tauler, Father Augustine Baker's Holy 
Wisdom (Sancta Sophia), Blosius, the works of St. Teresa, and 
those of St. John of the Cross — these and other such works 
formed the literature which aided Father Hecker in the under- 
standing and enjoyment of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
Lallemant he returned to ever and again, and St. John of the 
Cross he never let go at all. It was always with him, always 
read with renewed joy, and its wonderful lessons of divine wis- 
dom, expressed as they are with the scientific accuracy of a 
trained theologian and the unction of a saint, were to Father 
Hecker a pledge of security for his own state of soul and a 
source of inspiration in dealing with others. 

To the ordinary observer a knowledge of the men and 
women of to-day does not give rise to much hope of the wide- 
spread use of this spirituality. But Father Hecker thought other- 
wise. He ever insisted that it must come into general prefer- 
ence among the leading minds of Christendom ; for independence 
of character calls for such a spirituality, and that independence is 
by God's providence the characteristic trait of the best men and 
women of our times. God must mean to sanctify us in the way 
He has placed us in the natural order. He believed that the 
Holy Spirit would soon be poured out in an abundant dispensa- 
tion of His heavenly gifts, and that such a renewal of men's 



312 The Life of Father Hecker. 

souls was the only salvation of society. Some may think that 
he was over-sanguine ; many will not interest themselves in such 
'* high " matters at all. But some of the wisest men in the 
Church are of his mind, notably Cardinal Manning. And the 
signs of the times, if interrogated with regard to the problem 
of man's eternal destiny, give no other answer than the promise 
of a new era in which the Holy Ghost shall reign in men's 
souls and in their lives with a supremacy peculiar to this age. 
The following extract from The Church and the Age, a com- 
pilation of Father Hecker's later essays, shows his estimate of 
the form of spirituality we have been discussing, as -bearing upon 
the regeneration of society in general : 

"The whole aim of the science of Christian perfection is to 
instruct men how to remove the hindrances in the way of the 
action of the Holy Spirit, and how to cultivate those virtues 
which are most favorable to His solicitations and inspirations. 
Thus the sum of spiritual life consists in observing and yielding 
to the movements of the Spirit of God in our soul, employing 
for this purpose all the exercises of prayer, spiritual reading, the 
practice of virtues, and good works. 

"That divine action which is the immediate and principal 
cause of the salvation and perfection of the soul, claims by right 
the soul's direct and main attention. From this source within 
the soul there will gradually come to birth the consciousness of 
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, out of which will 
spring a force surpassing all human strength, a courage higher 
than all human heroism, a sense of dignity excelling all human 
greatness. The Hght the age requires for its renewal can come 
only from the same source. The renewal of the age depends on 
the renewal of reHgion. The renewal of rehgion depends on a 
greater effusion of the creative and renewing power of the Holy 
Spirit. The greater effusion of the Holy Spirit depends on the 
giving of increased attention to His movements and inspirations 
in the soul. The radical and adequate remedy for all the evils 
of our age, and the source of all true progress, consist in in- 
creased attention and fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit in 
the soul. * Thou shalt send forth Thy spirit and they shall be 
created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.'" 

Lallemant's answer to the difficulty of excess of personal 



Father Heckers Spiritual Doctrine, 313 

liberty in this method has been already given. Father Hecker's 
own is as follows : 

" The enlargement of the [interior] field of action for the 
soul, without a true knowledge of the end and scope of the ex- 
ternal authority of the Church, would only open the door to 
delusions, errors, and heresies of every description, and would 
be in effect only another form of Protestantism. But, on the 
other hand, the exclusive view of the external authority of the 
Church, without a proper understanding of the nature and work 
of the Holy Spirit in the soul, would render the practice of re- 
ligion formal, obedience servile, and the Church sterile. 

" The solution of the difficulty is as follows : The action of 
the Holy Spirit embodied visibly in the authority of the Church, 
and the action of the Holy Spirit dwelling invisibly in the soul 
form one' inseparable synthesis ; and he who has not a clear con- 
ception of this two-fold action of the Holy Spirit is in danger 
of running into one or the other, and sometimes into both, of 
these extremes, either of which is destructive of the end of the 
Church. The Holy Spirit, in the external authority of the Church, 
acts as the infallible interpreter and criterion of divine revela- 
tion. The Holy Spirit in the soul acts as the divine Life- 
giver and Sanctifier. It is of the highest importance that these 
two distinct offices of the Holy Spirit should not be con- 
founded. 

** The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous 
co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of 
realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity 
of force and grandeur productive of a new era to the Church 
and to society— an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, 
and still more difficult to describe in words, unless we have 
recourse to the prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures." 

'*The way out of our present difficulties," said Father Hecker, 
speaking of the conflicts of religion in Europe, "is to revert 
to a spirituality which is freer than that which Providence 
assigned as the counteraction of Protestantism in the sixteenth 
century — to a spirituaHty which is, and ever has been, the normal 
one of the Christian inner life. That era accentuated obedience, 
this accentuates no particular moral virtue, but rather presses the 
soul back upon Faith and Hope and Love as the springs of life, 
and makes the distinctive virtue fidelity to the guidance of the 



314 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Holy Spirit, impelling the Christian to that one of the moral 
virtues which is most suitable to his nature and to the require- 
ments of his state of life, and other environments." 

But from what has been said it must not be inferred that 
Father Hecker thought it safe to be without spiritual counsel, 
above all when the soul seemed led in extraordinary ways. He 
firmly believed in the necessity of direction, and that in the 
sense intended by spiritual writers generally. In practice he 
himself always consulted men of experience and piety. We have 
seen how he sought advice, and was aided by it at every crisis 
of his hfe. But he did not accept all that is said by some writers 
about the surrender of the soul to one's father confessor. He 
thought that confession was often too closely allied with direction, 
and he was convinced that many souls could profit by les3 intro- 
spection in search of sin, and more in search of natural and 
supernatural movements to virtue. He condemned over- direction, 
and thought that there was a good deal of it. He thought that there 
were cases in which spontaneity of effort was too high a price to 
pay for even the merit of obedience. His sentiment is well 
expressed by St John of the Cross in the ninth chapter of The 
Ascent of Mount Carmel : 

, ** Spiritual directors are not the chief workers, but rather the 
Holy Ghost; they are mere instruments, only to guide souls by 
the rule of faith and the law of God according to the spirit which 
God gives to each. Their object, therefore, should be not to 
guide souls by a way of their own, suitable to themselves ; but 
to ascertain, if they can, the way which God Himself is guiding 
them." 

Leave much to God's secret ways, was one of Father Hecker's 
principles. " When hearing some confessions on the missions," he 
once said, " and when about to give absolution, I used to say, 
in my heart, to the penitent. Well, no doubt God means to save 
you, you poor fellow, or He wouldn't give you the grace to 
make this mission. But just how He will do it, considering your 
bad habits, I can't see; but that's none of my business." 

Leave much to natural or acquired inclinations, was one of 
his maxims. He was not deeply interested in souls who by 
temperament or training needed very minute guidance in the 
spiritual life ; to him they seemed so overloaded with harness as 



Father Hecker's Spiritual Doctrine. 315 

to have no great strength left for pulling the chariot. But he 
would not interfere with them; he knew that it was of Httle avail 
to try to change such methods once they had become habitual; 
and he recognized that there were many who could never get 
along without them. At any rate he was tolerant by nature, 
and slow to condemn in general or particular anything useful to 
well-meaning souls. 

" It is vain to rise before the light," was another motto. 
" Make no haste in the time of clouds." These two texts of 
Scripture he was fond of repeating. *' When God shows the 
way," he once said, " you will see ; no amount of peering in the 
dark will bring the sun over the hills. Pray for light, but don't 
move an inch before you get it. When it comes, go ahead with 
all your might." Self-imposed penances, self-assumed devotional 
practices he mistrusted. He was convinced that the only way 
sure to succeed, and to succeed perfectly, was either that shown 
by an interior attraction too powerful and too peaceful to be 
other than divine, or one pointed out by the lawful external 
authority in the Church. 

When asked for advice on matters of conscience his decisions 
were generally quick and always simple. Yet he often refused 
to decide without time for prayer and thought, saying, *' I have 
no lights on this matter ; you must give me time." And not 
seldom he refused to decide altogether for the same reason. One 
thing annoyed him much, and that was the blank silence and 
stupid wonder with which some instructed Catholics listened to 
him as he spoke of the guidance of the Holy Spirit as the way 
of Christian perfection, treating it as beyond the reach of 
ordinary mortals, intricate in its rules, "mystical," and visionary; 
whereas Father Hecker knew it to be the one only simple 
method, with a minimum of rules, useful for all, readily under- 
stood. What follows is a brief outHne of the entire doctrine in 
its practical use in the progress of the soul from a sinful life 
onwards ; we have found it among his memoranda : 

"What must one do in order to favor the reception of the 
Holy Spirit, and secure fidelity to His guidance when received ? 
First receive the Sacraments, the divinely instituted channels of 
grace : one will scarcely persevere in living in the state of grace, 
to say nothing of securing a close union with God, who 
receives Holy Communion only once or twice a year. Second, 



3 1 6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

practise prayer, above all that highest form of prayer, assisting 
at Holy Mass ; then mental and vocal prayer, the public offices 
of the Church, and particular devotions according to one's 
attrait. Third, read spiritual books daily — the Bible, Lives of the 
Saints, Following of Christ, Spiritual Combat, etc. But in all 
this bear ever in mind, that the steady impelling force by which 
one does each of these outward things is the inner and secret 
prompting of the Holy Ghost, and that perseverance in the mis 
secured by no other aid except the same hidden inspiration. 
Cherish that above all, therefore, and in every stage of the 
spiritual life ; be most obedient to it, seeking meantjme for good 
counsel wherever it is likely to be had." 

Father Hecker was of opinion that a larger number of per- 
sons can be led to perfection than is generally supposed, and 
he would sound the call in the ears of Christians generally 
far more than is commonly done. He was also persuaded 
that there are many souls whose whole lives have been entirely, 
or almost entirely, free from the taint of mortal sin, and these 
he considered should be the most active spirits among Chris- 
tians. He thought that more room should be» made for them 
in our discourses, and that everybody should not be lumped 
together in one mass as hardened sinners or as penitents. 

To these innocent men and women the mediatorship of Christ 
should be made as distinct as possible, the elevation of the soul 
to divine union through the Incarnation brought out fully, and 
the redemption of man from sin and hell be included in it, and 
b,e absorbed by it. Too many souls who have never sinned 
mortally fail to struggle for perfection, Father Hecker often 
said, because they never have heard any invitation but the call to 
repentance. The positive side of Christianity is the Incarnation, 
which lifts all men of good will, repentant and innocent alike, into 
participation with the Deity. Father Hecker would talk by the 
hour of the need of bringing that view of our Lord's mission 
most prominently forward, the idea of redemption applying to 
innocent souls only on account of original sin, and by sympa- 
thy with their brethren infected by actual sin. And he would 
show that even hard sinners could often be brought to a good 
life more surely, and be enabled more certainly to persevere, by 
forcibly emphasizing the Incarnation and its benefits than by 
any other method. Their blindness and selfishness hinder hard 



Father Hecker's Spiritual Doctrine. 317 

sinners from easily appreciating our Lord's sufferings as borne 
on tlieir account. Father Hecker regretted that the idea of 
redemption was so often presented in a way to give the im- 
pression that atonement was the whole office of Christ. There 
are many souls for whom access to Christ as Mediator was 
more in consonance with the truth than access to Him as Re- 
deemer, Mediator in that case including Redeemer, rather than 
the Redeemer absorbing the idea of Mediator. Redemption from 
original sin is, of course, necessary to the mediatorship of a fallen 
race. But our Lord became Redeemer that he might be Mediator; 
he cleansed us from sin that he might lift us up to the God- 
head; and in many souls Father Hecker knew that the pro- 
cess of cleansing began and ended with original sin and venial 
sins. Such souls often go their lives long with no compelling 
stimulus to perfection, because they cannot apply to themselves 
the accusations of sin commonly put into the directions for be- 
ginners. 

Much has been already said of the aids to perfection which 
Father Hecker perceived in a right use of the liberty and in- 
telligence of our times. He also insisted that the commercial 
and industrial features of our civilization were no obstacles to a 
high state of Christian perfection. 

In a remarkable sermon, entitled ** The Saint of Our Day," 
published in the third volume of the Paulist series, Father 
Hecker, after making a powerful exposition of the advantages 
of liberty and intelligence as helps to the interior life, insists 
that the opportunities and responsibilities peculiar to our civiliza- 
tion are capable of being sanctified to the highest degree. The 
model he proposes in this sermon is St. Joseph. He was no 
martyr, yet showed a martyr's fidelity by his trust in God. 

** Called by the voice of God to leave his friends, home, and 
country, he obeys instantly and without a murmur. To find 
God and to be one with God, a solitary life in the desert was 
not nece.ssary to St. Joseph. He was in the world and found 
God where he was. He sanctified his work by carrying God 
with him into the workshop. St. Joseph was no flower of the 
desert or plant of the cloister ; he found the means of perfec- 
tion in the world, and consecrated it to God by making its cares 
and duties subservient to divine purposes. 

'' The house of St. Joseph was his cloister, and in the bosom 



3i8 The Life of Father Hecker. 



of his family he practised the sublimest virtues. While occupied 
with the common daily duties of life his mind was fixed on the 
contemplation of divine truths, thus breathing into all his 
actions a heavenly influence. He attained in society and in 
human relationships a degree of perfection not surpassed, if 
equalled, by the martyr's death, the contemplative of the soli- 
tude, the cloistered monk, or the missionary hero. 

*' Our age is not an age of martyrdom, nor an age of her- 
mits, nor a monastic age. Although it has its martyrs, its 
recluses, and its monastic communities, these are not, and are 
not likely to be, its prevailing types of Christian pej-fection. Our 
age lives in its busy marts, in counting-rooms, in workshops, in 
homes, and in the varied relations that form human society, and 
it is into these that sanctity is to be introduced. St. Joseph 
stands forth as an excellent and unsurpassed model of this type 
of perfection. These duties and these opportunities must be 
made instrumental in sanctifying the soul. For it is the difficul- 
ties and the hindrances that men find in their age which give 
the form to their character and habits, and when mastered be- 
come the means of divine grace and their titles to glory. 
Indicate these, and you portray that type of sanctity in which 
the life of the Church will find its actual and living expression. 

" This, then, is the field of conquest for the heroic Christian 
of our day. Out of the cares, toils, duties, afflictions, and re- 
sponsibilities of daily life are to be built the pillars of sanctity 
of the Stylites of our age. This is the coming form of the 
triumph of Christian virtue." 

With all, moreover. Father Hecker insisted on the practice of 
the natural virtues, honesty, temperance, truthfulness, kindhness, 
courage, and manliness generally, as preceding any practical move 
towards the higher life. He first explored the character and 
life of his penitent in search of what natural power he had, and 
then demanded its full exertion. He began with the natural 
man, and made every supernatural force in the sacraments and 
prayer aid in establishing and increasing natural virtue as a 
necessary preliminary and ever-present accompaniment of super- 
natural progress. Perhaps Father Hecker's antipathy to Calvin- 
ism sharpened his zeal for the natural virtues, and strengthened 
his advocacy of human innocence. The craving for the super- 
natural, he was convinced, would be strong in proportion to the 



Father Heckers Spiritual Doctrine. 319 

enlightenment of the natural reason ; the need of the grace of 
God is, of course, most urgent in a sinful state, but it would be 
more quickly perceived in proportion to the possession of natural 
virtue. As the exercise of reason is necessary to faith and pre- 
cedes its acts, so the integrity of natural virtue is the best pre- 
paration for the grace of God. Many pages of The Aspirations 
of Nature, from which the following brief quotations are made, 
are devoted to the dignity of humanity and the need of placing 
the excellence of human nature in the foreground when con- 
sidering how man may attain to a high supernatural state : 

*' Every faculty of the soul, rightly exercised, leads to truth ; 
every instinct of our nature has an eternal destiny attached to 
it. Catholicity finds its support in these and employs them in all 
her developments." 

" The, Catholic rehgion is wonderfully calculated and adapted 
to call forth, sustain, and perfect the tastes, propensities, and 
peculiarities of human nature. And let no one venture to say 
that these characteristics which are everywhere found among men 
are to be repressed rather than encouraged. This is to despise 
human nature, this is to mar the work of God. For are not 
these pecuharities inborn ? Are they not implanted in us by 
the hand of our Creator ? Are they not what go to constitute 
our very individuality ? " 

Humanity is a word of vague meaning to most ears, but to 
Father Hecker its meaning was a living thing of value second 
only to Christianity. Here is his summary of the relation of 
Catholicity to human nature, taken from the same source as the 
foregoing : 

" Catholicity is that religion which links itself to all the facul- 
ties of the mind, appropriates all the instincts of human nature, 
and by thus concurring with the work of the Creator affirms its 
own Divine origin." 

We give the following extracts from letters of spiritual ad- 
vice, to show Father Hecker's views of mortification : 

"Exterior mortifications are aids to interior life. What we 
take from the body we give to the spirit. If we will look at it 
closely, two-thirds of our time is taken up with what we shall 



320 The Life of Father Hecker. 

eat, and how we shall sleep, and wherewithal we shall be clothed. 
Two-thirds of our life and more is animal — including sleep. 
I do not despise the animal in man, but I go in for fair play 
for the soul. The better part should have the greater share. 
The right order of things has been reversed : ^^/^-version is 
necessary. Read the lives of the old Fathers of the Desert. 
They determined on leading a rational and divine life. How 
little are they known or appreciated in our day ! Their lives are 
more interesting than a novel and stranger than a romance." 

" Self-love, self-activity, self-hood, is something not easily de- 
stroyed. It is like a cancer which has its roots extending to the 
most delicate fibres of our mental and moral nature. Divine 
grace can draw them all out. But how slowly ! And how ex- 
quisitely painful is the process — the more subtle the self-love 
the more painful the cure." 

" Never practise any mortification of a considerable character 
without counsel. The devil, when he can no longer keep us 
back, aims at driving us too far and too fast." 

'* How can the intellect be brought under direction of divine 
grace except by reducing it to its nothingness ? — and how can this 
be done except by placing it in utter darkness ? How can the 
heart be filled with the spirit of divine love while it contains any 
other? How can it be purified of all other inordinate love ex- 
cept by dryness and bitterness ? God wishes to fill our intelli- 
gence and our hearts with divine light and love, and thus to deify 
our whole nature — to make us one with what we represent — God. 
And how can He do this otherwise than by removing from our 
soul and its faculties all that is contrary to the divine order?" 

. '* All your difficulties are favors from God ; you see them on 
the wrong side, and speak as the block of marble would while 
being chiselled by the sculptor. When God purifies the soul, it 
cries out just like little children do when their faces are washed. 
The soul's attention must be withdrawn from external, created 
things and turned inward towards God exclusively before its 
union with Him ; and this transformation is a great, painful, and 
wonderful work, and so much the more difficult and painful as 
the soul's attention has been attracted and attached to transitory 
things — to creatures." 

He was often heard repeating the following verse from The 
Imitation (book iii. chap, xxxi.), as summarizing the necessary 



Father Hecker's Spiritual Doctrine, 321 

conditions of the active life : '' Unless a man be elevated in 
spirit, and set at liberty from all creatures, and wholly united to 
God, whatever he knows and whatever he has is of no great 
wei^^ht." He wrote to a friend that he had studied that verse for 
thirty years and still found that he did not know all it meant. 

We give what follows as characteristic of Father Hecker's 
manner as a director : 

"At first, in all your deliberate actions, calm your mind, 
place ) ourself in the attitude of a receiver or listener, and then 
decide. Imperceptibly and insensibly grace will guide you." 

'* Don't care what people say ; keep your own counsel. Use 
your own sense and abound in it*; as the apostle says : * Let 
every one abound in his own sense.' Don't try to get anybody 
to agree with you. No two noses are alike, much less souls. 
God never repeats." 

" Nobody nowadays wants God. Every one has the whole 
world on his shoulders, and unless his own petty ideas and 
schemes are adopted and succeed, he prophesies the end of the 
world. You are on the right road — push on ! Our maxim is : 
Be sure you are right and then go ahead ! " 

" How much that is good and noble in the soul is smother- 
ed by unwise restraint ! The whole object of restraint is to re- 
ject that which is false and to correct the preference given to a 
lower good instead of to a higher one. As for the rest — free- 
dojH /" 

" I know a man who thinks he don't know anything — who 
every day knows that he knows less ; and who hopes to know 
nothing before he dies. O blessed emptiness which fills us with 
all ! O happy poverty which possesses all ! O beatified noth- 
ingness which can exclaim, Deus ineus et omnia ! " 

It will have been seen by this time that Father Hecker's 
first and fundamental rule of direction was to have as little 
of it as possible. His method started out with the purpose to 
do away with method at the earliest moment it could safe- 
ly be done. To be Father Hecker's penitent meant the privi- 
lege of sooner or later being nobody's penitent but the Holy 
Ghost's. The following rales of direction he printed in 1887: 

** The work of the priesthood is to help to guide the Christian 
people, understanding that God is always guiding them interiorly. 



322 The Life of Father Hecker. 

'*An innocent soul we must guide, fully understanding that 
God is dwelling within him ; not as a substitute for God. 

" A repentant sinner we must guide, understanding that we 
are but restoring him to God's guidance. 

** The best that we can do for any Christian is to quicken 
his sense of fidelity to God speaking to him in an enlightened 
conscience. 

•* Now, God's guidance is of two kinds : one is that of His 
external providence in the circumstances of life ; the other is 
interior, and is the direct action of the Holy Spirit on the hu- 
man soul. There is great danger in separating 4:hese two. 

" The key to many spiritual problems is found in this truth : 
The direct action of God upon the soul, which is interior, is in 
harmony with his external providence. Sanctity consists in mak- 
ing them identical as motives for every thought, word, and 
deed of our lives. The external and the internal (and the same 
must be said of the natural and supernatural) are one in God, 
and the consciousness of them both is to be made one divine 
whole in man. To do this requires an heroic life-sanctity. 

** All the sacraments of the Church, her authority, prayer 
both mental and vocal, spiritual reading, exercises of mortifica- 
tion and of devotion, have for their end and purpose to lead the 
soul to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. St. Alphonsus says in 
his letters that the first director of the soul is the Holy Ghost 
Himself. 

" It is never to be forgotten that one man can never be a 
guide to another except as leading him to his only Divine 
Guide. 

"The guide of the soul is the Holy Spirit Himself, and the 
criterion or test of possessing that guide is the Divine authority 
of the Church." 

What follows was published by Father Hecker in The Catholic 
World in 1887. It throws new light on the questions we have 
been considering, abounding in practical rules of direction, and 
therefore, though somewhat long, we venture to close the chapter 
with it : 

" * If any one shall say that without the previous inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit and His aid, a man can believe, hope, love, or 
repent as he should, so that the grace of justification may be con- 
ferred upon him, let him be anathema.' 



Father Hecker's Spiritual Doctrine. 323 

'^ These are the words of the holy Council of Trent, in which 
the Catholic Church infallibly teaches that without an interior 
movement of the indweUing Holy Spirit no act of the soul can 
be meritorious of heaven. This doctrine, embodying the plain 
sense of Holy Scripture and the unbroken teaching of the Church 
in all ages, bases human justification on an interior impulse of the 
Third Person of the Divine Trinity. This impulse precedes the 
soul's acts of faith, hope, and love, and of sorrow for sin : the 
first stage in the supernatural career, then, is the entering of the 
Holy Spirit into the inner life of the soul. The process of justi- 
fication begins by the divine life of the indwelling Spirit taking up 
into itself the human life of the soul. 

" Nor is this to the detriment of man's liberty, but rather to 
its increase. The infinite independence of God and his divine 
liberty are shared by man exactly in proportion as he partakes 
of God's life in the communication of the Holy Spirit. 

" If it be asked how the Holy Spirit is received, the answer 
is, Sacramentally. ' Unless a man be born again of water and the 
Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' As man 
by nature is a being of both outer and inner life, so, when made 
a new man by the Spirit of God and elevated into a supernatural 
state, God deals with him by both outer and inner methods. 
The Holy Spirit is received by the sacramental grace of bap- 
tism and renewed by the other sarraments ; also in prayer, vocal 
or mental, hearing sermons, reading the Scriptures or devout 
books, and on occasions, extraordinary or ordinary, in the course 
of daily life ; and when once received every act of the soul that 
merits heaven is done by the inspiration of that Divine Guide 
dwelling within us. Even though unperceived, though indistin- 
guishable from impulses of natural virtue, though imperceptibly 
multiplied as often as the instants are, yet each movement of 
heaven-winning virtue, and especially love, hope, faith, and re- 
pentance, is made because the Holy Spirit has acted upon the 
soul in an efficacious manner. 

'' It is not to induce a strained outlook for the particular 
cases of the action of the Spirit of God on us, or the signs of 
it, that these words are written. The sacraments, prayer and holy 
reading, and hearing sermons and instructions, are the plain, ex- 
ternal instruments and accompaniments of the visitations of God, 
and are sufficient landmarks for the journey of the soul, unless it 
be led in a way altogether extraordinary. And apart from these 



324 The Life of Father Hecker. 

external marks, no matter how you watch for God, his visitations 
are best known by their effects ; it is after the cause has been 
placed, perhaps some considerable time after, that the faith, hope, 
love, or sorrow becomes perceptibly increased — always excepting- 
extraordinary cases. Not to ' resist the Spirit ' is the first duty. 
Fidelity to the divine guidance, yielding one's self up lovingly to 
the impulses of virtue as they gently claim control of our thoughts 
— this is the simple duty. 

" Having laid down in broad terms the fundamental doctrine 
of the supernatural life, it is proper to say a word of the natural 
virtues and of their relation to the supernatural. _ It has been 
already intimated that the goodness of nature is often indistin- 
guishable from the holiness of the supernatural life ; and, indeed, as 
a rule, impulses of the Holy Spirit first pour their floods into the 
channels of natural virtue, thus rendering them supernatural. 
These are mainly the cardinal virtues : Prudence, Justice, Fortitude^ 
and Temperance. Practised in a state of nature, these place us 
in our true relations with our nature and with God's provi- 
dence in all created nature around us ; these are the virtues 
which choice souls among the heathen practised. They are 
not enough. When they have done their utmost they leave 
a void in the heart that still yearns for more. It is the pur- 
pose of the Spirit of God to raise our virtue to a grade far 
above nature. The practice of the virtues of faith, hope, and 
love, which bring the soul into direct communication with God, 
and which, when practised under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
are supernatural, following upon the practice of the cardinal vir- 
tues under the same guidance, place the soul in its true and per- 
fect relation with God — a state which is more than natural. 

** Let us, if we would see things clearly, keep in sight the differ- 
ence between the natural and supernatural. In the natural order 
a certain union with God was possessed by man in all ages in 
common with every creature. The union of the creature with 
the divine creative power is something which man can neither 
escape from nor be robbed of But in the case of rational crea- 
tures this union is, even in a state of nature, made far closer 
and its enjoyment increased by a virtuous life — one in which rea- 
son is superior to appetite ; a life only to be led by one assisted, 
if not by the indwelHng Holy Spirit peculiar to the grace of 
Christ, yet by the helps necessary to natur.il virtue and called 
medicinal graces. The practice of the four cardinal virtues — Pru- 



Father Hecker s Spiritual Doctrine. 325 

dence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance — In the ordinary- 
natural state gave to guileless men and women in every age a 
natural union with their Creator. Although we maintain that 
such natural union with God is not enough for man, yet we in- 
sist that the part the natural virtues play in man's sanctification 
be recognized. In considering a holy life natural virtues are too 
often passed over, either because the men who practised them in 
heathen times were perhaps few in number, or because of the 
Calvinistic error that nature and man are totally corrupt. 

*' And we further insist on the natural virtues because they 
tend to place man in true relations with himself and with nature, 
thus bringing him into more perfect relation or union with God 
than he was by means of the creative act — a proper preliminary 
to his supernatural relation. Who will deny that there were men 
not a few among the heathen in whom Prudence, Justice, For- 
titude, and Temperance were highly exemplified ? They knew 
well enough what right reason demanded. Such men as Socrates, 
Plato, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius had by the natural light 
of reason a knowledge of what their nature required of them. 
They had faults, great ones if you please ; at the same time they 
knew them to be faults, and they had the natural virtues in 
greater or less degrees. Thus the union between God and the 
soul, due to the creative act, though not sufficient, never was in- 
terrupted. The Creator and the Mediator are one." 




CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE PAULIST PARISH AND MISSIONS. 

IN serving the parish, the PauHsts, led by Father Hecker, en- 
deavored to utilize the individual qualities of each member, 
as well as the advantages of a community, so as to bring them to 
bear as distinct forces upon the people. What George Miles had 
said of them as missionaries, as quoted in a previous chapter, 
applied to them as parish priests, and told accordingly in results. 
Their personal excellences found free room for activity, without 
any lack of oneness of spirit and without interfering with harmony 
of action. 

The missionary makes an efficient parish priest. Accustomed 
to severe labor as well as to very moderate recreation, he pours 
the energy of apostolic zeal into parochial channels. A high order 
of preaching is often the result, combined with tireless application to 
visiting the sick, hunting up sinners, and hearing confessions. On 
the other hand, tlie experience of regular parish duty is of assist- 
ance to the missionary when he returns to his '' apostolic expe- 
ditions," as Pius IX. called them ; he is all the better fitted 
to plan and execute his proper enterprises from having ob- 
tained a fuller knowledge of the ordinary state of things in a 
parish. 

It will not be expected that a detailed account of the parish 
work of St. Paul's will here be given, or more than a brief sum- 
mary of that of the missions. These latter were kept up with 
vigorous energy from 1858 till the close of the war in the spring 
of 1865. On April 4 of that year Father Baker died, and the 
missions, which had been a grievous burden to the little band, 
now became an impossibility. They were suspended till 1872, 
excepting an occasional one, given not so much as part of the 
current labor of the community, as to retain their sweet savor 
in the memory and as an earnest of their future resumption. 
But up to Father Baker's death this small body of men had 
preached almost everywhere throughout the country, getting away 
from the South just before the war blocked the road. Eighty- 
one missions had been given, hundreds of converts had been re- 
ceived into the Church and many scores of thousands of confes- 
sions heard. Numerous applications for missions were refused for 
want of men to preach them. Scarcely a city of any size in 



The Panlist Parish and Missions, 327 

the United States and Canada but knew the Paulists and thanked 
God for their missions. 

The Fathers conducted them in the same spirit as when they 
were Redemptorists, and followed, as the community still con- 
tinues to do, substantially the same method. It is not easy to 
improve on St. Alphonsus. But they did not fail to bring out 
the quaHties and call for the peculiar virtues demanded by 
Divine Providence in these times. Their preaching was distin- 
guished by appeals to manliness and intelligence, as well as to 
the virtues distinctly supernatural. The people were not only 
edified by their zeal and religious discipline, but the more ob- 
servant were attracted by the Paulists* freedom of spirit, and by 
their constant insistence on the use of the reasoning faculties to 
guide the emotions aroused by the sermons. The missionaries 
were men of native independence, and their religious influence 
was productive of the same quality. Great attention was paid to 
the doctrinal instructions. As to special devotions, the Paulists 
have never had any to propagate, though competent and willing 
to assist the pastor in his own choice of such subsidiary religious 
aids. Non Catholics of all classes were drawn to hear the con- 
vert missionaries, and the exercises usually received flattering 
notices from the secular press. An unrelenting warfare was car- 
ried on against the dangerous occasions of sin pecuhar to our 
country and people, and the Fathers were from the beginning, 
and their community is yet well known for particular hostil- 
ity to drunkenness, and to the most fruitful source of that de- 
testable and widespread vice, the saloon. Their antagonism to 
drunkenness showed their appreciation of its evil supremacy 
among the masses, and the condemnation of the saloon was a 
necessary result. 

This attitude of the missionaries was often a bitter-sweet morsel 
to the pastors, nearly all of whom at that time had been trained 
in the Old World. They were glad of the good done, yet sorry 
to see their liquor-dealers put to public shame. One pastor is 
recorded as saying : " The only people that have looked sad at 
this mission are the first men in my parish, the rum-sellers." 
The following is a piece of evidence worth publishing, though it 
is but one of very many which could be produced. It is found 
in the Mission Record in Father Baker's handwriting : 

" A Catholic one evening, on his way to the mission, stopped 



328 The Life of Father Hecker. 

in a ^rog-shop and took a glass with the proprietor. * Won't you 
go with me to hear the Fathers ? ' said the guest. ' No.' said 
the other, ' these men are too hard on us. They want all of us 
hquor-dealers to shut up our shops. If we were rich we could 
do it ; but we an't — we are poor. These men are too high and 

independent ; Father wouldn't dare to speak as they do. 

But after all,' continued he, 'they are good fellows; see the eff.^ct 
of their labors.' Then, taking out of his pocket a crumpled let- 
ter which he had received through the post-office, and which 
was badly spelled and badly written, he read as follows : ' Sir : 
I send you three dollars which I received by mistake three years 
ago from your clerk. And now I hope that you will stop sell- 
ing damnation, and that God may give you grace to stop it. 
Yours : A Sinner.' " 



Whatever may have been the misgivings of some, the op- 
position of the Paulists to the liquor- traffic was approved by the 
most enlightened and influential prelates and priests of the 
country, as is shown by the number of cathedrals and other 
prominent churches in which the missions were preached. It 
should be added that this antagonism to drunkenness, to convivial 
drinking, and to saloon- kef ping, not only received the unanimous 
applause of the Catholic laity, but edified the non-Catholic pub- 
lic, and brought out many commendations from the secular press 
as well as from the police authorities of our crowded cities. A 
mission is a terror to obstinate evil doers of all kinds, but to 
habitual drunkards and saloon keepers it is especially so. The 
attitude of the Church in America on this entire subject, as 
officially expressed by the decrees of the Third Plenary Council 
and by its pastoral letter, fully justifies the action of Father 
Hecker and his companions. 

As soon as the church in Fifty-ninth Street was opened the 
community exerted itself to make the surroundings attractive. The 
building occupied but a small part of the property, the rest of 
which was laid out in grass-plats and gravel walks ; many shade- 
trees and some fruit-trees were set-out, and a flower and vegetable 
garden planted. It was Father Hecker's delight to superintend 
this work, and to participate actively in it when his duties al- 
lowed. The grounds soon became an attractive spot, to which in 
a few years church goers from all parts of the city began to 
make Sunday pilgrimages. They came in considerable numbers 
every Sunday to assist at Mass or Vespers in St. Paul's quiet. 



The Paulist Parish and Missions. 329 

country-like church. Meantime the residents of the parish, not 
very numerous and nearly all of the laboring class, formed deep 
attachments for their pastors, and an almost ideal state of unity 
and affection bound priests and people together. 

Nearly the entire region was covered with market gardens, varied 
with huge masses of rock, and groups of shanties. Very many 
of the parishioners of that early period lived in these nondescript 
dwellings, of which they were themselves both the architects and 
builders, a fact which added not a little to their quaint and 
picturesque appearance. The sites upon which these *' squatters' " 
homes were placed, and over which roamed and sported their 
mingled goats, dogs, and children, are now occupied in great part 
by blocks of stately residences and apartment houses ; but we 
know not whether the grace of God abounds more plentifully now 
than it did then. At any rate, whoever heard Father Hecker in 
those primitive days call his parish ** Shantyopolis," could see no 
sign of regret on his part that he had a poor and simple people 
as the bulk of his parishioners. 

Much attention was given to the preparation and preaching 
of sermons, with the result of a full attendance at High Mass on 
Sundays. Beginning with 1 86 1, a volume of these discourses was 
published under Father Hecker's direction each year, till a series of 
seven volumes had been completed. These were very well re- 
ceived by the Catholic public, and were bought in considerable 
numbers by non Catholic clergymen. They had an extensive 
sale, though when their publication was first proposed it was 
feared that they would not succeed. They are almost wholly of 
a strictly parochial character, brief, direct in style, abounding in 
examples from every-day life, and plentifully illustrated with 
Scripture quotations. Although Father Hecker preached regularly 
in his turn, only a few of his sermons were contributed to these 
volumes, but his suggestions and encouragement greatly assisted 
the other Fathers in preparing theirs, as indeed in all their duties, 
parochial and missionary. Some years after the series was ended 
two volumes of Five Minute Sermons were published, providing 
short instructions for Low Masses on Sundays. 

The Paulist Church also became well known for the attention 
paid to the public ofnces of religion, as well as for rubrical ex- 
actness in ceremonies, the greater feasts of the year being cele- 
brated with all the splendor which a simple church-building and 
limited pecuniary means allowed. 



330 The Life of Father Hecker. 



Father Hecker was from first to last strongly in favor of 
congregational singing, and assisted to the best of his power in 
introducing it. It began in our church in modest fashion back 
in those early days, and was fostered zealously at the Lenten de- 
votions and society meetings. It never failed of some good re- 
sults, and has finally attained a flourishing state of success in 
this parish. His attention to the children was constant. No 
matter who had charge of the Sunday-school, as long as his 
health permitted Father Hecker was there every Sunday that he 
was at home, asking questions, talking to the teachers and chil- 
dren, enlivening all by his encouragement and cheerfulness. 

He was a martinet on one question, and that was cleanHness, 
and its kindred virtue, orderliness. He was never above working 
with mop, broom and duster indoors, and shovel and rake in the 
garden ; and this trait added much to the appearance of things 
as well as to the comfort of all concerned in the use of the con- 
vent and the church. 

Though assiduous in every parish duty, his favorite task was 
the rehef of the poor. They multiplied in number in undue 
proportion to the increase of the parish, drifting out this way 
from the overcrowded quarters down town. Father Hecker en- 
listed the best men and women in the congregation in the work 
of caring for them, organizing a conference of the St. Vincent 
de Paul Society, in whose labors he joyfully and energetically 
participated. 

The death of Father Baker was, humanly speaking, a loss to 
the community beyond all calculation, and was the great event 
of the first period of the Pauhst community. Father Hecker had 
the very highest estimate of his hoHness, and mourned him with 
the mingled sorrow and joy with which saints are mourned. 
The reader should get Father Hewit's Memoir of Father Baker 
if he would know his virtues. Father Hecker was often heard to 
say that few men understood his ideas so clearly as did Father 
Baker and had so much sympathy with them. And his death 
was the signal for an impulse whose power plainly indicated its 
supernatural origin. Up to that time there had been but two 
priests added to the community, and those who had offered 
themselves as novices and been rejected were, as a rule, little cal- 
culated to inspire hope. But from 1865 onwards good subjects, 
mostly converts, applied in sufficient numbers, and in a few years 
the missions were resumed. But what was of even more impor- 



The Paulist Parish and Missions. 



331 



tance, the apostolate of the press, started in the publication of The 
Catholic World the month in which Father Baker's death 
occurred, assumed a national prominence, and together with the 
Cathohc Tracts and the Catholic PubHcation Society set the Pauhsts 
at work in their primary vocation, the conversion of non-Catholics 
to the true religion. To this, and to Father Hecker's lectures, we 
now turn. Of course we might dwell longer on the parish and 
the missions, about which there are many things of interest left 
untold, but only the lapse of time can sufficiently dissociate them 
from living persons to allow of their being made public. 




CHAPTER XXIX. 

FATHER HECKER'S LECTURES. 

THE suspension of the missions, if it was the result of neces- 
sity, was yet an aid to Father Hecker in devoting himself 
to public speaking in the interests of the Catholic faith. Between 

, missions, it is true, he seized every favorable opportunity to 
address audiences on controversial topics, often doing so in public 
halls, as well as in churches. Meantime he could still further 
mature his plans, and, testing his methods by experiment, secure 
for future occasions a course of lectures fully suited to the end 
he had in view. More than ever did he study to fit himself 
for his apostolate. How, he asked himself, shall the living word 
be framed anew for our new people ? How shall rehgious teaching 
be suited to the special needs of this age without detracting from 
the integrity and the venerable antiquity of the truth ? He 
sought to answer these questions by recalling his own early difficul- 
ties, and by opening his soul to the voices of struggling hu- 
manity uttered everywhere around him. What men outside the 
Church were yearning for in matters social and religious was his 
incessant study. He read every book, he read every periodical 
which promised to guide him ever so little to know by what 
road Divine Providence was moving men's minds towards the truth. 
His eyes were ever strained to read the signs of God's provi- 
dence in men's lives. And his conclusion was always the same: 

i proclaim it on the house-tops that no man can be consistent 

I with his natural aspirations till he has become a Catholic; 

I preach it on the street- corners that the Catholic religion elevates 
man far above his highest natural force into union with the 
Deity — intimate, conscious, and perpetual. 

As to systematic preparation for discourses to non-Catholics, 
Father Hecker had his own peculiar equipment. As the reader will 
remember, • God had led him in no way more singularly than in 
his studies, and had led him straight. The doctrines of the Church 
were familiar to him, for they had quenched his soul's thirst. 
And he had preached them on the missions, the instructions on 
the Creed and the Sacraments falling to his share. He had given 
these waters of life to other souls, and knew their value. He was 
a close student of the dogmatic side of religion. He had, it is 
true, httle taste for the refinements of theologians, unless they 

332 

\ 



Father Hecker's Lectures. 333 

touched the questions of human dignity and the scope of the grace 
of Christ, which were vital ones to himself. He viewed religion 
with wide-sweeping glances, trying to discover every hill of vision 
or stream of sanctity. He had plain truths to teach, and he needed 
none other. He knew the organism of the Church in clergy and 
in people, for he had seen it both from without and within. He 
had felt the grip of authority fixed in his soul. He had agonized 
under the brand of punishment as it burnt into his flesh, and he 
had seen it changed into the badge of approval. Within and 
without he knew Catholicity, loved it daily more and more, and 
was daily more and more anxious to proclaim it to the world. 
It was not from labored preparation of his lectures that success 
came to Father Hecker. Even those which seemed the most 
elaborately prepared he did not write out word for word. His 
verbal memory was not trustworthy, and he had to confide in his 
extemporizing faculty, which was very good, and which became in 
course of time quite reliable, giving out sentences clear, gramma- 
tical, and fit to print. '* I have to produce a sermon for next Sun- 
day," he once wrote to a friend. " For me a sermon is always 
a spontaneous production ; I cannot get 07ie up. The idea must 
arise and grow up in my own mind. It is usually hard labor for 
me to produce it outwardly and give it suitable expression." But 
the effort did not appear in the delivery, for his style, although 
emphatic, was easy and familiar; his delivery, if not altogether 
according to the rules of elocution, nevertheless gained his point 
completely. No word of his was dead-born. His voice was not 
always clear, as he often suffered from bronchial troubles, but it 
was not unpleasant, and had a penetrating quality, being of that 
rr»iddle pitch which carries to the ends of a large auditorium with- 
out provoking the echoes. His appearance was very dignified, 
his tall frame, his broad face and large features showing with 
striking effect. His action was simple and not ungraceful, though 
frequently exceedingly energetic. As he never sought emotional 
effects his powjer may be known by his unfailing success in hold- 
ing his audience perfectly attentive throughout long argumentative 
discourses. Energy of conviction was one of the strongest forces 
he possessed, and it took the shape of a gentle constraint with 
which his positive utterances of Catholic principles compelled 
assent. Sincerity of belief and liberty of soul were admirably 
blended in his manner. He never appeared in public without 
attracting many representatives of the mottled sectarianism of our 



334 ^^^ ^^f^ ^f Father Hecker. 

population ; and this pleased him much, for he loved them, 
felt at home with them, and was full of joy at the opportunity of 
addressing them. 

He was chagrined at the apathy he sometimes met with 
among Catholics concerning the American apostolate. He found 
priests who would devote much labor to collecting money for the 
propagation of the faith among distant heathen races, but very few 
who would make a serious effort for the conversion of their 
American fellow- citizens. Are Americans of less worth in God's 
eyes than pagans and Buddhists? he would ask. He thought no 
differently of the people of the United States than, St. Paul did 
of the Corinthians and Macedonians, groaning and travailing 
with them to bring them forth members of Christ ; or than St. 
Francis Xavier did of the Japanese. 

If asked how he was going to convert people, he would answer: 
'* I am a Catholic, and I know that I am right. I can prove that 
I am right. What more do I want than this, and honest men and 
women who will listen to me ? " The confidence he had in the 
strength of the Catholic argument was absolute, and this he showed 
by his zeal. His sole study was how to transmute this force 
into missionary form. Of all the wonders of the intellectual world 
he felt that the greatest is the faith of Catholics, and he knew 
by the lesson of his early life that it is but slightly appreciated by 
the non-Catholic mind. That Catholics permit this ignorance to 
continue was a puzzle to him. And it was all the more annoy- 
ing bccc.use any single one of them can multiply his influence 
indefinitely by his union with the most perfect organism ever 
known — the Catholic Church. The quiescence of a body of men, 
sincere and intelligent, infallibly certain of the means of obtain- 
ing eternal happiness, living in daily contact with other men 
ignorant and inquiring about this unspeakable privilege, and yet 
not taking instant measures to impart their knowledge, was to 
Father Hecker almost as great a wonder as the divine gift of faith 
itself, especially as Catholics are well furnished with, leaders and are 
organized to spread the truth as one of their most sacred duties. 

Mr. Wilfrid \\ ard, a Catholic philosophical writer of distinc- 
tion, has explained in a brilliant little volume the influence upon 
controversy of what he styles Tlie Clothes of Religion — race, 
political traditions, education, physical temperament. He puts 
into his instructive pages the sense of the great scholastic max- 
im, Quidquid recipitur seeundum moduni recipientis recipitiir — 



Father Hecker s Lectures. 335 

Whatever is received, is received according to the mode (or 
character) of the recipient. The national character, the tendencies, 
the antecedents of the people addressed, the relative power of 
thought and of emotion in their mental activity ; all these are 
not, indeed, the souls of men but the clothing of them, their 
armor and their weapons ; and Father Hecker felt that such things 
must be taken into account in dealing with people, and that 
with the utmost discretion. His view about controversy with 
non- Catholics was indeed aggressive — that we had reached the 
point in the battle at which the legion, having cast its javelins, 
rushes on with drawn swords to closer conflict. But the com- 
batants should be well trained, the captains should know the 
ground to be traversed, should understand thoroughly the weak- 
ness and strength of the enemy. It was not a new thing to 
bring Protestantism into court at the suit of human liberty. But 
it was a novelty to attack Protestantism as the very torture - 
chamber of free and innocent souls, and to do it in such a way 
as to draw thousands of the best Protestants in the land to 
listen. Such sentences in the morning papers as *' An overflow- 
ing house greeted Father Hecker," " The immense hall has sel- 
dom been so completely filled," " Representative men of all creeds 
and of none were scattered through the large audience," had a 
tremendous meaning when the lecturer was known to be the 
most fearless assailant of Protestantism who had appeared for 
many a day. 

Father Hecker well knew that the non- Catholic American 
aspires to deal with God through the aid of as few exterior ap- 
pliances as possible. To come near God by his own spiritual 
activity without halting at forms of human contrivance is his 
spiritual ambition. His religious joy is in a spiritual life which 
deals with God directly, His inspired Word, His Holy Spirit. 
Father Hecker longed to tell his fellow-countrymen that the 
Catholic Church gives them a flight to God a thousand times 
more direct than they ever dreamed of. They think that the 
authority of the Church will cramp their limbs ; he was eager 
to explain to them that it sets them free, clears the mind of 
doubt, intensifies conviction into instinctive certitude, quickens 
the intellectual faculties into an activity whose force is un- 
known outside the Church. 

It was not with the truths of revelation alone that Father 
Hecker dealt in his lectures. The first principles of natural re- 



33^ The Life of Father Hecker. 

ligion were the background of all his pictures of true Christian- 
ity: that God is good, that men will be punished only for their 
personal misdeeds, that men are born for union with God and 
in their best moments long for Him, that they are equal, being 
all made in the Divine image, endowed with free will and called 
to the one eternal happiness — such were the great truths with 
which he would impress his audience first of all, using them 
afterwards as terms of comparison with Protestant doctrine. 
This plan he followed rather than institute a comparison of 
historical claims or of Biblical credentials, the well-trodden but 
weary road of ordinary controversy. To him Protestantism was 
more an offence against the integrity of human nature than 
even against the truths of Christian revelation. And he would 
place Catholicity in a new light, that of reason and liberty. 

The revolt of Protestantism was not more against God's ex- 
ternal authority among men than it was against the equal 
brotherhood of the human race. Well done, Luther, Father 
Hecker would say, well and consistently done ; when you have 
proclaimed man totally depraved you have properly made his 
religion a Cain-like flight from the face of his Maker and his 
kindred by your doctrine of predestination. Father Hecker 
deemed it plainly unwise to forego the advantages of attacking 
such vulnerable points as the Protestant errors of total depravity 
and predestination for the sake of dwelling on the Biblical and 
historical credentials of Church authority. He knew, indeed, 
that extravagant individualism is to this day a fundamental Pro- 
testant error, but the waning power of its doctrinal assertion 
has deprived it of aggressive vigor. There is less danger of its 
assault upon the Church, Father Hecker thought, than of its 
sceptical tendency upon its own adherents. To emphasize the 
obligation of organic unity, in such a condition of things, was 
not good tactics ; it was to revive the spirit of resistance with- 
out arresting the evils of doubt. Authority in rehgion has 
high and undoubted claims ; but it is nevertheless true that the 
normal development of man is in freedom. Man is fitted for 
his destiny in proportion to his ability to use his liberty with 
wisdom, and Father Hecker endeavored to set non-Catholics 
themselves to work removing the obstacles to true spiritual 
liberty which Protestantism had planted in the way. 

An appeal from Luther and Calvin to the standards of ra- 
tional nature, to human virtue, to human equality, rather than to 



Father Heckers Lectures. 337- 

exclusively Catholic standards, was certain of success in a large 
class of minds. And this but led to the consideration of the 
Church's claims to elevate rational nature and natural virtue to 
that divine order which is above nature, and which is organic in 
the Catholic Church. Moral rectitude is a simpler test of truth 
than texts from a dead book, whose original tongues and whose 
perplexed exegesis are quite unknown to the vast mass of man- 
kind. And Father Hecker recognized that the elementary truths 
of reason and the aspirations of humanity for better things are 
not unknown to any man or woman; these are everybody's per- 
sonal means of testing truth. To pass them by in order to 
apply the remoter test of revelation is either to admit that 
Protestantism is not against the dictates of reason and man's 
aspirations, or to commence the argument against it at the 
wrong end. 

In a letter to Cardinal Barnabo written in July, 1863, Father 
Hecker gives an account of how he went to work to secure and 
interest a non-Catholic audience : 

•* For several years past it has seemed to me that some more 
effectual means should be taken to reach the Protestant com- 
munity. This last winter I ventured with this view upon an experi- 
ment. In three different cities I gave, in a large pubhc hall, a 
course of conferences on rehgion, one every evening from Sunday 
to Sunday inclusive. The expense of the hall was paid by the 
priest of the place, the lectures were all free, and addressed ex- 
clusively to Protestants. The halls were crowded at each place, 
and that my audiences might be such as I desired to address, 
I begged Catholics to stay away. At the close of one of my 
lectures there were present twenty-five hundred persons, chiefly 
Protestants. 

" My method was as follows : In treating any doctrine of 
our holy faith with a view to convincing my audience, I consid- 
ered first what want in our nature it was related to, and to 
which it addressed itself This want being discovered, I devel- 
oped and illustrated it until my hearers were fully convinced of 
its existence and importance. Then the question came up. Which 
religion recognizes this element or want of our nature, and meets 
all its legitimate demands ? Does Protestantism ? Its answers 
were given, and found either hostile or incomplete. Then the 
Catholic Church was interrogated, and she was found to recog- 



338 The Life of Father Hecker. 

nize this want, and her answers adequate and satisfactory. These 
answers were then shown to be supported by the authority of 
Holy Scriptures. 

" The interest shown by my audience was remarkable, and 
the effect of this method was equal to my hopes. My experi- 
ence convinces me that, if this work were continued, it would 
prepare the way for a great change of religion in this country, 
more particularly at the present time, when the pubHc mind is 
favorably disposed to consider the claims of the CathoHc Church." 

The ** want in our nature " appealed to was often in the 
poHtical order, such as the love of liberty or man's capacity for 
self-government. This he dwelt upon at considerable length in 
the opening part of his lecture, viewing it as a philosopher 
would, and extending its application, as far as possible, to men 
generally. He thus chose his criterion for comparison of the two 

, claimants in the religious world. His triumph was, therefore, often 
vh an arena only semi-reHgious, or rather in that of natural re- 
ligion. . The effect was wonderfully good, though doubtless due 
in great measure to the manner in which his plan, so simply 
sketched in the letter above quoted, was developed before the 
audience. The entire doubting body of intelligent men was en- 
listed in varying degrees in favor of the Catholic teaching of 
man's relation to God and to his fellow-men, and against Protest- 
antism. Americans could not help feeling disgust for doctrines 
which were condemned by the maxims of the Declaration of In- 
dependence. 

Although there was nothing positively new in the method — 
something like it had been used by Archbishop Hughes against the 

( Presbyterian champion, Breckenridge — yet the public was taken by 
surprise. The style of controversy universally in vogue was that of 
setting up texts of Scripture and bowling them down with other 
texts. But here comes an American Catholic and arraigns Protestant 
doctrine at the tribunal of American liberty. The thick-and-thin 
Protestant was thrown into a rage, and became abusive and often 
incoherent in his reply. The easy-going Protestant claimed that 
the doctrines assailed were obsolete, as his church had, at least 
implicitly, changed them. *' Then change your church," said 
Father Hecker; ** if you have come back to the right doctrine, 
why not come back to the true Church ? " As to the average 
intelligent inquirer, he was uniformly influenced by these lectures 



Father Heckers Lectures. 339 

against the Reformation and its entire teaching, with its dreadful 
effects of doubt and division among Christians. 

Father Hecker had an intuitive perception of the peculiar diffi- 
culties of the American people, and ever showed the utmost 
readiness and skill in meeting them. He had a matchless power 
of laying bare the wants of the human heart, and an equal facility 
of pointing out the light and strength of Catholicity for their 
supply. His immense sympathy for an aspiring and guileless 
soul deprived of the truth, was most evident ; he always looked 
it and spoke it and acted it before his audience. To do so was 
no effort on his part. He told of the promised land not as a 
native of it, but as a messenger sent into it, and now returned 
with such tidings as should hasten the steps of his brethren still 
wandering in the desert; and this sympathetic interest enn- 
braced the civil as well as the religious side of human nature. 
He claimed everything really American for the Catholic faith, and 
this was joy and gladness to many a weary heart drawn to the 
Church by her charities, or her beautiful symbolism, yet hindered 
by the phantom of absolute authority and the dread of losing 
the integrity of free citizenship. Incivism — will Catholic apologists 
never learn it ? — is the heaviest stone flung at the Church in 
all free lands to-day. Father Hecker's blood fairly boiled that 
the Church of Christ, the very home of Christian freedom, and 
the nursing-mother of all civil well-being, should be thus assailed, 
while Calvin's and Luther's degrading doctrines should be paraded 
as alone worthy of a free people. 

To say that Father Hecker ''Americanized" in the narrow 
sense would be to do him injustice. The American ideas to 
which he appealed he knew to be God's will for all civilized 
peoples of our time. If fundamentally American they were 
not for that reason exclusively American. His Americanism is 
so broad that by a change of place it can be made Spanish, or 
German ; and a slight change of terms makes it religious and 
Catholic. Nor had form of government essentially to do with it; 
human equality cannot be monopolized by republics ; it can be 
rightly understood in a monarchy, though in such a case it does 
not assume the conspicuous place which it does in a republic. It 
was this broadness of Father Hecker's Americanism that made 
him acceptable to the extremely conservative circles of Rome, 
in his struggle there in the winter of 1858-9. Many men in 
the monarchies of the Old World may doubt the advent of re- 



340 The Life of Father Hecker. 

publicanism there, but what sensible man anywhere doubts the 
aspiration of all races towards liberty and intelligence ? 

Father Hecker's repertory covered the entire ground between 
scepticism and CathoHcism. In refutation of Protestantism the 
principal lectures were: The Church and the Republic ; Luther and 
the Reformation ; How and Why L became a Catholic, or A Search 
after Rational Christianity ; and The -State of Religion in the 
United States. On the positive side his chief topics were : The 
Church as a Society, Why we Lnvoke the Saints, and the Sacraments 
of Penance and Holy Communion. Others he had against mate- 
rialisin, spiritualism, etc. 

As may naturally be supposed, some of his lectures succeeded 
better than others. One of those he personally preferred was The 
Church and the Republic. He opened by affirming, as the funda- 
mental principle of the American nation, that man is naturally virtu- 
ous enough to be capable of self-government. He developed this in 
various ways till his audience felt that it was to be the touchstone of 
the question between the churches. He then exhibited the Protes- 
tant teaching on human virtue and human depravity, quoting exten- 
sively from Luther and from Calvin, as well as from the creeds 
of the principal Protestant sects, until the contrast between their 
teaching and the fundamental American principle was painfully 
vivid. There was no escape ; doctrinal Protestantism is un-Amer- 
ican. He then gave the Catholic doctrine of free will, of merit, 
of human dignity, and of the equaHty of men and human brother- 
hood. The impression was profound. Great mountains of 
prejudice were lifted up and cast into the sea. The elevating 
influences of the Church's faith fixed men's eyes and won their 
hearts. To have it demonstrated that Catholicity was not a gigan- 
tic effort to combine all available human forces to maintain a 
central religious despotism in the hands of a hierarchy, was a sur- 
prise to multitudes of Protestants. To not a ic\N intelligent Cath- 
ohcs the style of argument was a great novelty. Father Hecker's 
success proved that the claim of authority on the part of the 
Church could be established without much difficulty In men's 
minds, if it were not associated with the enslavement of reason and 
conscience, and if shown to bo consistent with rational liberty. 
He insisted upon the positive view of the subject. He proclaimed 
the purpose of Catholic discipline to be essentially conservative of 
human rights, a divinely-appointed safeguard to the liberty and 
enlightenment of the soul of man. He further proclaimed 



Father Meeker's Lectures. 341 

that the infliction of penalties by Church authority was an acci- 
dental exercise of power provoked by disobedience to lawful 
authority. 

Luther and the Reformation excited widespread remark, and yet 
to one accustomed to old time controversy it seemed but a frag- 
ment of an argument The lecture proved that Luther was not 
an honest reformer, because, having started to reform inside the 
Church and as a Catholic, he finished by leaving the Church and 
therefore the real work of reform. At the outset Father Hecker 
proved that Luther was but one, and by no means the most im- 
portant one, of the great body of Catholic reformers of his time. 
These set to work to remedy abuses which had grown to such 
an extent as to have become intolerable. The genuine reformers, 
led by the Popes, went right on and did reform the Church most 
thoroughly, ending by the decrees of the Council of Trent. All 
this the lecturer proved by citations from numerous high authori- 
ties, all of them Protestants. Why did Luther leave the company 
of the true reformers ? or, as Father Hecker puts it, ** Why did 
Luther change his base ? " Whatever reason he had for leaving 
CathoHcity, it was not, as a matter of fact, on account of zeal for 
reform. The lecture concluded by emphatically and, in different 
terms, repeatedly denying to Luther the name of Reformer and to 
his work the name of Reformation. Such was the line of argument 
in a lecture which entertained the general public and enraged 
bigoted Protestants more, perhaps, than any of the others. The 
secret of its success was that it overturned the great Protestant 
idol. 

With humanitarians, rationalists, indifferentists, and sceptics 
Father Hecfker's lectures were popular, and such were his 
favorite audience. If he so much- as aroused their curiosity 
about the Church, he deemed that he had gained a victory ; 
this and more than this he always succeeded in doing. Re- 
gular *' church menbers" he did not hope much from, 
though they came to hear him and he sometimes made con- 
verts even among them. The lecture system, then far more 
in vogue than at present, gave him hearers from all classes 
of minds, and especially those most intellectually restless and 
inquiring. He took his turn in the list which contained the 
names of Wendell Phillips, B^echer, Emerson, and Sumner, and 
found his golden opportunity before such audiences as had 
been gathered to listen to them. Thus into the drifts of 



342 The Life of Father Hecker. 

thought and into the intellectual movements around him, into 
the daily and periodical press, into the social and political and 
scientific groupings of men and women, his lectures enabled 
him to breathe the peremptory call of the true religion, sure 
to provoke inquiry in all active minds, and in some to find 
good soil and bear the harvest of conversion. He searched 
for earnest souls ; and his confidence that they were every- 
where to be found was rewarded not only in many particular 
instances, but also by the removal of much prejudice through- 
out the entire country. 

The writer of these pages saw Father Hecker-^for the first 
time on the lecture platform. He was then in the full tide 
of success, conscious of his opportunity and of his power to 
profit by it. We never can forget how distinctly American 
was the impression of his personality. We had heard the 
nation's greatest men then living, and their type was too 
familiar to be successfully counterfeited. Father Hecker was 
so plainly a great man of that type, so evidently an out- 
growth of our institutions, that he stamped American on every 
Catholic argument he proposed. Nor was the force of this 
peculiar impression lessened by the whispered grumblings of a 
few petty minds among Catholics themselves, to whom this 
apostolic trait was cause for suspicion. Never was a man 
more Catholic than Father Hecker, simply, calmly, joyfully, 
entirely Catholic. What better proof of this than the rage 
into which his lectures and writings threw the outright enemies 
of the Church ? Grave ministers lost their balance and foamed 
at him as a trickster and a hypocrite, all the wo^'se because 
double-dyed with pretence of love of country. 

For the Protestant pulpits felt the shock and stormed in uni- 
son against this new exposition of CathoHcity and against its 
representative. In some cases, not content with one onslaught, 
they returned to the charge Sunday after Sunday. All this 
fwas not unexpected. The secular press, however, were very 
generally favorable in their notices, excepting some of the 
Boston daihes. As a rule, the lectures were very fully re- 
ported and sometimes appeared word for word. 

To reply to one's assailants after one has left the field of 
battle is no easy matter, and for the most part Father 
Hecker trusted for this to local champions of Catholicity; 
and not in vain. But it happened on one occasion that after 



Father Hecker's Lectures. 343 

he had lectured in a large town in Michigan, and had 
journeyed on to fulfil engagements farther West, he was at- 
tacked in a public hall by a minister of the place. On his 
return East Father Hecker stopped over and gave another 
lecture in the town, and not only refuted the minister but 
covered him with ridicule. In fact there was no great need of 
def&nce of Father Hecker's arguments, they were so simply true 
and so readily understood. Not one of his antagonists compared 
well with him for frankness, good humor, courtesy ; and they 
almost invariably shirked the issue and confined themselves to 
stale calumnies against the Church. 

At Ann Arbor, Michigan, Father Hecker lectured in the Meth- 
odist meeting-house, then the largest hall in the town. The 
Michigan State University, at this town, had at the time about 
seven hundred students, nearly all of whom came to the lecture. 
The subject chosen was Luther and the Reformation. As it 
was announced, the audience loudly applauded Luther's name, and 
some one called for three cheers for him, which were given vo- 
ciferously, especially by the students. Father Hecker smiled, 
waited till the noise was over, then bade them give him a fair 
hearing; which, of course, they did. Before he had concluded, 
his audience seemed won to his view of the question in hand, 
and showed it by the names and the sentiments applauded. At 
the end some one called out '' Three cheers for Father Hecker ! " 
and they were given most heartily. 

There seems nothing like a new discovery, as we have already 
said, in Father Hecker's controversial matter, or even in the 
method of its treatment. But joined with its exponent, blended 
into his personality, as it was, by the sincerity of his conviction, 
it was a discovery ; flavored and tinctured by him, this wayside 
fountain had a new life-giving power to both Catholics and non- 
Catholics. Bishops, priests, and Catholic men and women in the 
world heard him with mute attention. Some Catholics, it is true, 
were stunned by his bold handling of those traditional touch-me- 
nots of conservatism — reason and Hberty ; and such drew off sus- 
picious. But multitudes of Catholics felt that he opened up to 
full view the dim vistas of truth towards which they had long been 
groping ; these could agree with him without an effort. A few 
had reached his stand-point before they knew him, and hailed 
with rapture the leader who, unlike themselves, was not kept back 
by either dread of novel-sounding terms or by the impotency of 



344 The Life of Father Hecker. 

private station. But here and there he met CathoHcs as dead-set 
against him as the Judaizing converts had been against his pa- 
tron, St. Paul. Their only love was for antiquity, and that they 
loved passionately and in all its forms, even the neo- antiquity of 
the controversy of the Reformation era. On the other hand 
many, when they heard him, said, " That is the kind of Catholic 
I am, and the only kind it is easy for me to be." Non-Catholics, 
earnest men and women, were often heard to say, ^' If I were 
quite sure that Hecker is a genuine Roman Catholic I think that 
I could be one myself"; and this some of them did not hesitate 
to publish in the newspapers, so that Father Hecker might have 
said with Job : " The ear that heard me blessed me, and the 
eye that saw me gave witness to me." 

Father Hecker felt that he was a pioneer in thus dealing with 
rationalized Protestants. His eye was quick to see the signs of 
the breaking up of dogmatic Protestantism, and he was early out 
among the vast intellectual wreckage, endeavoring to catch and 
tow into port what fragments he could of a system founded on 
doubt and on the denial of human virtue and human inteUigence. 
*' I want," he said on one occasion in private, '* to open the 
way to the Church to rationalists. It seems to me to be now 
closed up. I feel that I am a pioneer in opening and leading 
the way. / smuggled myself into the Church, and so did 
Brownson." And now he wanted to abolish the custom-house, 
and open the harbor wide and clear for the entrance into the 
Church of all men who had been forced back on reason alone for 
guidance. The words above itaHcised were uttered with powerful 
emphasis and with much feeling. He quoted the following saying 
of Ozanam with emphatic approval : '' What the age needs is an 
intellectual crusade"; and he affirmed that Leo XHI. had done 
very much to aid us in preaching it, and that Pius IX , rightly 
understood, had led the way to it. *'The Catholics I would help 
with my left hand, the Protestants with my right hand," he 
once said. And non-Catholics, all but the bigots, liked him, 
for he was frank and true by every test. He was neither an 
exotic nor a hybrid, and they felt at home with him. He much re- 
sembled the best type of public men in America who have 
achieved fame at the bar or in politics ; indeed, as we have al- 
ready intimated, he really belonged to that type, for all his 
studies and all his training in the Catholic schools and convents, 
which had given him more and more of truth, more and more 



Father Hecker's Lectures. 345 

of the grace of God, had not changed the kind or type of man 
to which he belonged. Hi was the same character as when he \ 
harangued the Seventh Ward voters, or discussed the Divine ! 
Transcendence at Brook Farm. Scholastic truth sank deep into 
his soul, but scholastic methods stuck on the surface and then 
dropped away. " And David having girded his sword upon his 
armor began to try if he could walk in armor, for he was not 
accustomed to it. And David said to Saul, I cannot go thus, 
for I am not used to it. And he laid them oft. And he took 
his staff" which he had always in his hands, and chose him five 
smooth stones out of the brook." 

If his duties in the Paulist community and parish had allowed. 
Father Hecker could have lectured to large audiences during the 
greater part of the year, and been well paid for his labor. He 
soon became the foremost exponent of Catholicity on the public 
platform in the United States. From the close of the war till hisv 
health gave way in 1872 he was much sought after for lectures, 
and spoke in the different cities and very many of the large towns, 
besides being obliged to refuse numerous applications, constantly 
coming in from all parts of the Union and from all sorts of socie- 
ties, secular, Catholic, and even distinctly Protestant. Meantime 
he was frequently called on to preach on such occasions as the 
laying of corner-stones of churches and their dedications. He 
also gave one of the sermons preached before the Second Plenary 
Council of Baltimore. 

The following is the introductory paragraph of a long charac- 
ter sketch of Father Hecker from the pen of James Parton, the 
historian. It is taken from an article entitled " Our Roman Catholic 
Brethren," published in the Atlantic Monthly for April and May, 
1868. The entire article is full of admiration for the Catholic 
Church and of yearning towards her, though written by a typical 
sceptic of this era: 

" As usual with them i^Catholics] it is one man who is working 
this new and most eff'ective idea [the Catholic Publication Society] ; 
but, as usual with them also, this one man is working by and 
through an organization which multiplies his force one hundred 
times and constitutes him a person of national importance. 
Readers who take note of the really important things transpiring 
around them will know at once that the individual referred to is 
Father Hecker, Superior of the Community of the Paulists, in New 
York. . . . It is he [Father Heckerj who is putting American 



346 The Life of Father Hecker, 

machinery into the ancient ark and getting ready to run her by 
steam. Here, for once, is a happy man — happy in his faith and in 
his work — sure that in spreading abroad the knowledge of the true 
Catholic doctrine he is doing the best thing possible for his native 
land. A tall, healthy- looking, robust, handsome, cheerful gentle- 
man of forty-five, endowed with a particular talent for winning 
confidence and regard, which talent has been improved by many 
years of active exercise. It is a particular pleasure to meet with 
any one, at such a time as this, whose work perfectly satisfies 
his conscience, his benevolence, and his pride, and who is doing 
that work in the, most favorable circumstances, and with the best 
co-operation. Imagine a benevolent physician in a populous hos- 
pital, who has in his office the medicine which he is perfectly 
certain will cure or mitigate every case, provided only he can get 
it taken, and who is surrounded with a corps of able and zealous 
assistants to aid him in persuading the patients to take it ! " 

Mr. Parton having given us a picture of Father Hecker as 
he appeared to Protestants, the following exhibits him as Catho- 
lics saw him. It is an extract from Father Lockhart's clever 
book, The Old Religion ; the original of Father Dilke is Father 
Hecker : 

"■ The day after our last conversation, having an introduction 

to the Superior of the Fathers in New York, my friends 

agreed to accompany me. I was particularly glad of this because 
Father Dilke was one of the most remarkable men of our Church 
in the States. Himself a convert, and a man of large views and 
great sympathies, no one was better able to enter into the scru- 
ples and difficulties of religious Protestants on their first contact 
with Catholic doctrines and Catholic worship. 

"On sending in our names we had not long to wait in the 
guest-room before the good father made his appearance. There 
was a stamp of originality about him; tall in stature, not exactly 
what we are used to call clerical in appearance, with a thoroughly 
American type of face, and with the national peaked beard in- 
stead of being closely shaven as is the custom with our clergy 
generally. I had met him before, without his clerical [religious] 
garb, on a journey on board a steamboat. At first, I remember, I 
had set him down as a Yankee skipper or trader of some sort; but 
when by chance we got into conversation. I found him a hard-headed 
man, shrewd, original, and earnest in his remarks; but when 
our conversation turned to religious topics, and got animated, I 
shall never forget how all that was C(^mnion and national in his 
physique disappeared. And when he si)oke of the mystery of 
God's love for man, his countenance seemed as it were trans- 



Father Hecker's Lectures. 347 

figured, so that I felt that an artist would not wish for a better 
living model from which to piint a St. Francis Xavier, making 
himself all things to all men amidst his shipmates on his voyage 
to the Indies." 

From what has been said of Father Hecker's aptitude to win 
non-Catholics to hear and believe him, it should not be thought 
that in order to do so he was obliged to leave off any sign of 
his priestly character. He was distinctly priestly in his demeanor, 
though, as already observed, not exactly what one would call a 
thorough ''ecclesiastic." He ever dressed soberly. When he 
arrived at a town on a lecture tour he always put up at the house 
of the resident priest, if there was one, and, if he stayed over Sun- 
day, preached for him at High Mass. He invariably corresponded 
beforehand with the pastor of the town to which he was invited by 
a secular lecture society, requesting him to send complimentary 
tickets to the leading men of the place — lawyers, doctors, minis- 
ters, merchants, and politicians. And when he appeared on the 
platform it was always in company with the priest. He loved 
priests with all his might and was ever at home in their com- 
pany. It is not very singular, therefore, that some of his most de- 
voted friends and most ard entadmirers were priests, secular and 
religious, born and bred in the Old World — among them some of 
the most prominent clergymen in the country. 

Father Hecker often met non-Catholics in private, being sought 
out by prominent radicals, sceptics, unbelievers, and humanita- 
rians. What they had heard from him in public lectures, or read 
of him in the press, drew them to him, or they were brought 
to see him by mutual friends. And here he was indeed power- 
ful, overbearing resistance by the strength of conviction and the 
simple exhibition of Catholic truth. The sight of a man any- 
where, whom he could but suspect of aptitude for his views, was 
the signal for his emphatic affirmation of them, sometimes lead- 
ing him to controversy bordering on the vociferous on cars 
and steamboats. In such circumstances, and in all his other 
dealings with men, you saw his prompt intelligence, his fine sen- 
sibility, his lofty spirit, his forceful and occasionally imperious 
will to h«jld you to the point ; but the quality which, both in 
public and private discourse, outshone all, or rather gave all 
light and direction, was an immense love of truth joined to an 
equal admiration for virtue. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE APOSTOLATE OF THE PRESS. 

ONE Sunday forenoon, happening to cross Broadway near a 
fashionable Protestant church, we saw the curb on both sides 
of the street lined with carriages, and the coachmen and foot- 
men all reading the morning papers. The rich master and his 
family were in the softly-cushioned pews indoors, while their ser- 
vants studied the news of the world and worshipped at the 
shrine of the Press outside: a spectacle suggestive of many 
things to the social reformer. But to a religious mind it was an 
invitation to the Apostolate of the Press. The Philips of our day 
can evangelize the rough charioteer by means of the written 
word as easily as they can his cultured master. 

To Father Hecker the Press was the highest opportunity for 
religion. The only term of comparison for it is some element of 
nature like sunlight or the atmosphere. In the Press civilized 
man lives and breathes. Father Hecker was as alive to the in- 
jury done to humanity by bad reading as a skilful physician is 
to the malaria which he can smell and fairly taste in an infected 
atmosphere ; and he ever strove to make the Press a means of 
enlightenment and virtue. He began to write for publication 
almost immediately after his arrival in America as a Redemp- 
torist missionary; the Questions of the Soul and the Aspirations 
of Nature were composed amidst most absorbing occupations be- 
tween 1853 and 1858. Throughout life he was ever asking him- 
self and others how the Press could be cleansed, and how its 
Apostolate could be inaugurated. To this end he was ready to 
devote all his efforts, and expend all his resources and those of 
the community of which he was the founder. It is true that no 
man of his time was better aware of the power of the spoken 
word, and few were more competent to use it, the natural and 
Pentecostal vehicle of the Holy Spirit to men's souls. But he 
also felt that the providence of God, in making the Press of our 
day an artificial medium of human intercourse more universal 
than the living voice itself, had pointed it out as a necessary ad- 
junct to the oral preaching of the truth. He was convinced that 
religion should make the Press its own. He would not look 
upon it as an extraordinary aid, but maintained that the ordin- 
ary provision of Christian instruction for the people should ever 

348 



The Apostolafe of the Press. ^^g 

be two-fold, by speech and by print : neither the Preacher with- 
out the Press nor the Press without the Preacher. He was 
heard to say that in reading Montalembert's Monks of the West 
he had been struck with the author's eloquent apostrophe to the 
spade, the instrument of civilization and Christianity for the 
wild hordes of the early middle ages. Much rather, he said, 
should we worship the Press as the medium of the light of God 
to all mankind. He felt that the Apostolate of the Press might 
well absorb the external vocation of the most active friends of 
religion. 
/ In the Press he found a distinct suggestion from above of a 
change of methods for elevating men to truth and virtue. In 
the spring of 1870, while on his way home from the Vatican 
Council, he wrote to Father Deshon from Assisi : 

*' I felt as if I would like to have peopled that grand and 
empty convent with inspired men and printing-presses. For 
evidently the special battle-field of attack and defence of truth 
for half a century to come is the printing-press." 

He believed in types as he believed in pulpits. He believed 
that the printing-office was necessary to the convent. To him 
the Apostolate of the Press meant the largest amount of truth 
to the greatest number of people. By its means a small band 
of powerful men could reach an entire nation and elevate its 
religious life. 

This being understood, one is not surprised at the extent of 
his plans for this Apostolate. He was never able to carry them 
out fully. Not till some years after the founding of the commu- 
nity could he make a fair beginning, although the first volume of 
the Paulist Sermons appeared in 1861. Delays were inevitable 
from the difficulties incident to the opening of the house and 
church in Fifty-ninth Street, and these were aggravated by the 
war, which for over four years bred such intense excitement as to 
interfere with any strong general interest in matters other than 
political. But the very month it ended, in April, 1865, Father 
Hecker started The Catholic World. Its purpose was to speak 
for religion in high-grade periodical literature. The year fol- 
lowing he founded The Catholic Publication Society, with the 
purpose of directing the entire resources of the Press into a 
missionary apostolate. In 1870 he began The Young Catholic. 



350 The Life of Father Hccker. 

In literary merit and in illustrations it equalled any of the juven- 
ile publications of that period, and was the pioneer of all the 
Catholic journals in the United States intended for children. 
And finally, in 1 871, he projected the establishment of a first- 
class Catholic daily, securing within a year subscriptions for 
more than half the money necessary for the purpose, when the 
work was arrested by the final breaking down of his health. 

The Catholic World was considered a hazardous venture. 
At the time it was proposed, such modest attempts at Catholic 
monthlies as had struggled into life had long ceased to exist. 
The public for such a magazine seemed to be small. The priest- 
hood had little leisure for reading, being hardly sufficient in num- 
ber for their most essential duties ; the educated laymen were 
not numerous, nor remarkable for activity of mind in matters of 
religion ; nearly the entire Church ot America was foreign by 
birth or parentage, and belonged to the toiling masses of the 
people: ''not many rich, not many noble." And, Father Hecker 
was asked, whom are you going to get to write for the maga- 
zine? How many Catholic literary men and women do you know 
of? Prudence, therefore, stood sponsor to courage. The cau- 
tious policy of an eclectic was adopted, and for more than a 
year the magazine, with the exception of its book reviews, was 
made up of selections and translations from foreign periodicals. 
The late John R. G. Hassard, who had already succeeded as a 
journalist, was chosen by Father Hecker as his assistant in the 
editorial work. Efforts were at once made to secure original ar- 
ticles ; but before the magazine was filled by them three or four 
years were spent in urgent soliciting, in very elaborate sub-edit- 
ing of MSS., and in reliance on the steady assistance of the 
pens of the Paulist Fathers. As a compensation, The CatJio- 
lic World has introduced to the public many of our best 
writers, and first and last has brought our ablest minds on both 
sides of the water into contact wi'.h the most intelligent Catho- 
lics in the United States. All through its career it has repre- 
sented Catholic truth before the American public in such wise as 
to command respect, and has brought about the conversion of 
many of its non-Catholic readers. Since its beginning it has 
been forced to hold its own against the claims of not unwelcome 
rivals, and against the almost overwhelming attractions of the 
great illustrated secular monthlies, to say nothing o.f the vicissi- 
tudes of the business world ; and it has succeeded in doing so. 



J 



The Apostolate of the Press. 351 



Father Hecker's purpose in establishing it has been realized, for 
it has ever been a first-rate Catholic monthly of general litera- 
ture, holding an equal place with similar publications in the 
world of letters. He was its editor-in-chief till the time of his 
death, except during three years of illness and absence in 
Europe. He conducted it so as to occupy much of the field 
open to the Apostolate of the Press, giving solid doctrine in 
form of controversy, and discussing such religious truths as were 
of current interest. He kept its readers informed of the change- 
ful moods of non-Catholic thought, and furnished them with 
short studies of instructive eras and personages in history. 
These graver topics have been floated along by contributions of 
a lighter kind, by good fiction and conscientious literary criti- 
cism. Meantime, the social problems which had perplexed 
Father Hecker himself in his early life, have caught the atten- 
tion of the slower minds of average men, or rather have been 
thrust upon them ; and their consideration, ever in his own sym- 
pathetic spirit, now forms a prominent feature of The Catholic 
World. 

The Young Catholic was an enterprise dear to his heart. His 
interest in it was constant and minute, and some of the articles 
most popular with its young constituency were from his own 
pen. It has always been edited by Mrs. George V. Hecker, as- 
sisted by a small circle of zealous and enlightened writers. It 
has held its way, but has had to encounter the not unusual fate 
of bold pioneers. It created its own rivals by demonstrating the 
possibilities of juvenile Catholic journalism, calling into existence 
more than a score of claimants for the support which it alone, 
at first solicited. The lowest estimate of juvenile publications of a 
purely secular tone yearly sold in America carries the figure far 
into the millions. Some of these, and it is well to know that they 
are the most widely sold, are first-rate in a literary point of 
view and employ the best artists for the pictures. To say that 
they are secular but feebly expresses the totally unmoral influ- 
ence they for the most part exert. They are the extension of 
the unreligious school into the homes of the people. When 
Father Hecker and Mrs. George V. Hecker and their associates 
began The Young Catholic, this vast mirage of the desert of life 
had but glimmered upon the distant horizon ; they saw it com- 
ing and they did their best to point Catholic youth away from 
it and lead it to the real oasis of God, with its grateful shade. 



352 The Life of Father Hecker. 

its delicious fruits, and its ever-flowing springs of the waters of 
life. 

As already said, The Catholic Publication Society was begun a 
year after The Catholic World was started, its aim being to 
turn to the good of religion, and especially to the conversion of 
non-Catholics, all the uses the press is capable of. It was a mis- 
sionary work in the broadest sense seeking to enlist not only 
the clergy but especially the laity in an organized Apostolate of 
the Press, to enlighten the faith of Catholics and to spread it 
among their Protestant fellow-citizens. Its first work was to be 
the issuing of tracts and pamphlets telling the plain truth about 
the CathoHc religion. Local societies, to be established through- 
out the country, were to buy these publications at a price less 
than cost, and distribute them gratis to all classes likely to be 
benefited. To catch the eye of the American people, to affect 
their hearts, to supply their religious wants with Catholic truth, 
were objects kept in view in preparing the tracts. Although 
some of them were addressed to Catholics, enforcing important 
religious duties, nearly all of them were controversial. More 
than seventy different tracts were printed first and last, and many 
hundreds of thousands, indeed several millions, of them distrib- 
uted in all parts of the country, public, charitable, and penal in- 
stitutions being, of course, fair field for this work. They were 
all very brief, few of them covering more than four small-sized 
pages. '* Three pages of truth have before now overturned a 
life-time of error," said Father Hecker. The tract Is it Honest? 
though only four pages of large type, or about twelve hundred 
words, created a sensation everywhere, and was answered by 
a Protestant minister with over fifty pages of printed matter, 
or about fifteen times more than the tract itself. One hundred 
thousand copies of this tract were distributed in New York City 
alone. It is printed herewith as a specimen, both as to style and 
matter, of what one may call the aggressive-defensive tactics in 
Catholic controversy : 

Is IT Honest 

To say that the Catholic Church prohibits the use of the Bible — 
When anybody who chooses can buy as many as he Ukes at any Catholic 
bookstore, and can see on the first page of any one of them the approbation of the 
Bishops of the Cathohc Church, with the Pope at their head, encouraging Catho- 
lics to read the Bible, in these words : " The faithful should be excited to the read- 
ing of the Holy Scriptures," and that not only for the Catholics of the United 
States, but also for those of the whole world besides ? 



The Apostolate of the Press. 353 

Is IT Honest 
To say that Catholics believe that man by his own power can forgive sin — 
When the priest is regarded by the CathoHc Church only as the agent of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, acting by the power delegated to him, according to these 
words, " Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; and whose sins you 
shall retain, they are retained ? " (St. John xx. 23). 

Is IT Honest 
To repeat over and over again that Catholics pay the priest to pardon their 

sins — 
When such a thing is unheard of anywhere in the Catholic Church — 
When any transaction of the kind is stigmatized as a grievous sin, and ranked 
along with murder, adultery, blasphemy, etc., in every catechism and work on 
Catholic theology ? 

Is IT Honest 

To persist in saying that Catholics believe their sins are forgiven merely by 
the co7ifessio7i of thein to the priest, without a true sorrow for them, or a 
true purpose to quit them — 

When every child finds the contrary distinctly and clearly stated in the cate- 
chism, which he is obliged to learn before he can be admitted to the sacraments? 
Any honest man can verify this statement by examining any Catholic catechism. 

Is IT Honest 
To assert that the Catholic Church grants any indulgence or permission to com- 
mit sin — 
When an " indulgence," according to her universally received doctrine, was 
never dreamed of by Catholics to imply, in any case whatever, any permission to 
commit the least sin ; and when an indulgence has no application whatever to sin 
until after sin has been repented of and pardoned ? 

Is IT Honest 
To accuse Catholics of putting the Blessed Virgin or the Saints in the place of 
God or the Lord Jesus Christ — 
When the Council of Trent declares that it is simply useful to ask their inter- 
cession in order to obtain favor from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, 
who alone is our Saviour and Redeemer — 

When " asking their prayers and influence with God " is exactly of the same 
nature as when Christians ask the pious prayers of one another ? 

Is IT Honest 

To accuse Catholics of paying divine worship to images or pictures., as the 

heathefi do — 
When every Catholic indignantly repudiates any idea of the kind, and when 
the Council of Trent distinctly declares the doctrine of the Catholic Church in re- 
gard to them to be, " that there is no divinity or virtue in them which should ap- 
pear to claim the tribute of one's veneration " ; but that " all the honor which is 
paid to them shall be referred to the originals whom they are designed to repre- 
sent?" (Sess. 25). 



354 ^-^^^ ^^f^ ^f Father Hecker, 

Is IT Honest 
To make these and many other similar charges against Catholics — 

When they detest and abhor such false doctrines more than those do who 
make them, and make them, too, without ever having read a Catholic book, or 
taken any honest means of ascertaining the doctrines which the Catholic Church 
really teaches ? 

Remember the commandment of God, which says : " Thou shalt not bear 
false witness against thy neighbor." 

Reader, would you be honest, and do no injustice ? Then examine the doc- 
trines of the Catholic Church ; read the works of Catholics. See both sides. 
Examine, and be fair ; for AMERICANS LOVE fair play. 

In preparing these little messengers of truth every style of 
writing was used, narrative, allegory, dialogue, and positive argu- 
ment. They are as good reading to-day as when first issued, 
and the volume which they form may be placed in an inquirer's 
hands with excellent effect. To keep them agoing Father 
Hecker laid all his friends of any literary ability under contribu- 
tion, the series being opened by Archbishop Spalding with a 
tract on Religious Indifferentism. Did space permit, an entire list 
of the subjects dealt with might be given, and the reader could 
the better see how they embrace the entire controversy between 
Catholics and Protestants and infidels, many of the tracts being 
masterpieces of popular argumentation. 

As to the business side of these enterprises, Father Hecker 
confided it to Mr. Lawrence Kehoe, who was publisher of The 
Catholic World and of The Young Catholic from their begin- 
ning until the Paulists became their own publishers, shortly 
before Mr. Kehoe's death. He was placed in charge of the 
PubHcation Society as manager when it was started, and so con- 
tinued until the formation of the present firm, remaining then 
the active partner in its management. No more ardent advo- 
cate of a good cause could be desired than Lawrence Kehoe. 
Father Hecker cherished him as a friend, and he was his 
zealous and efficient agent in his entire Apostolate of the 
Press. 

The purpose of the Publication Society was missionary, and 
the intention was that its books, tracts, and pamphlets should be 
either given away or sold at cost price, or below it. Therefore 
it was necessary to secure funds for the running expenses. The 
reader has seen that this was to have been done by the contri- 
butions of subsidiary societies. To aid in the formation of these 



The Apostolate of the Press: 355 

and to solicit contributions in money, circulars were sent to all 
the clergy of the United States. Only a few made any practical 
response. But the meeting of the Second Plenary Council of 
Baltimore in 1866, the same year the Society was founded, was 
opportune. The bishops were induced to take the matter up, 
and a decree, of which the following is a translation, w^as 
enacted. After speaking of the need of supplying Catholic 
literature at a low price the Council proceeds : 

*' Since a society with this object in view, known as The 
Catholic Publication Society, has been founded in New York, 
and has been so far conducted with commendable diligence and 
with notable success, we therefore consider it to be entirely 
worthy of the favor and assistance of prelates and priests, as 
well as of the Catholic people in general. That the whole coun- 
try may the better and more certainly share in its advantages, 
we advise and exhort the bishops to establish branches of this 
Society in their dioceses, by means of whose officers the publica- 
tions of the Society may be distributed. But as without great 
expenditure of money these societies cannot be kept up and 
must fail of success, the bishops shall therefore appoint a yearly 
collection for their support, to be taken up in all the principal 
churches, or shall make other provision for the same purpose 
according to their best judgment " (Con. Plen. Bait., § 500), 

From the Pastoral Letter of the same Council we extract the 
following : 

" In connection with this matter [the Catholic Press] we earn- 
estly recom.mend to the faithful of our charge The Catholic 
Publication Society, lately established in the city of New York 
by a zealous and devoted clergyman. Besides the issuing of 
short tracts with which this Society has begun, and which may 
be usefully employed to arrest the attention of many whom 
neither inclination nor leisure will allow to read larger works, 
this Society contemplates the publication of Catholic books, 
according as circumstances may permit and the interests of re- 
ligion appear to require. From the judgment and good taste 
evinced in the composition and selection of such tracts and 
books as have already been issued by this Society, we are en- 
couraged to hope that it will be eminently effective in making 
known the truths of our holy religion, and dispelling the preju- 
dices which are mainly owing to want of information on the 
part of so many of our fellow-citizens. For this it is neces- 
sary that a generous co-operation be given both by clergy and 
laity to the undertaking, which is second to none in impor- 
tance among the subsidiary aids which the inventions of modern 
times supply to our ministry for the diffusion of Catholic truth." 



356 The Life of Father Hecker. 

How elated Father Hecker was by this action of the Council, 
and how over-sanguine, as the event proved, of the future of the 
Society, is shown by the following extracts from letters to a 
friend : 

" My efforts in the recent Council were completely successful,, 
owing to the many prayers offered to God — yours not the least. 
Could you have seen the letters from different quarters, from 
good pious nuns, and persons loving and serving and fearing 
God in the world, written to me, and their writers all praying 
and doing works of mercy and mortification for the purposes I 
had in view, you could not wonder at my success. ^God did it. 
What is more, I was fully conscious of the fact, and it is this 
that made my great joy. 

" The Catholic Publication Society has the unanimous con- 
sent, and sympathy, and co-operation of the entire episcopate 
and clergy. Every year there is a collection to be taken up in 
the principal churches for its support. I have drawn an ele- 
phant, but I do not feel like the man who did not know what 
to do with him after he had got him." 

" It is good in God to place me in a position in which I can 
act efficiently. The disposition towards me is, I know, most 
pleasant and favorable. I have been placed where I shall be at 
liberty to act and direct action. Quietly pray for me as the 
Holy Spirit may suggest. On my part I will also seek the same 
guidance. How good God is to give it ! " 

The Council had hardly adjourned when it began to be plain 
that in legislating for The Catholic Publication Society the pre- 
lates had been over-stimulated by the zeal of Archbishop Spald- 
ing and the personal influence of Father Hecker himself, who 
was present in his capacity of Superior of the Paulists. He 
went among the bishops and pleaded for the Apostolate of the 
Press with characteristic vigor, and with his usual success. 
Aided by the archbishop, he lifted the Fathers of the Council 
for a moment above what in their sober senses they deemed 
the exclusive duty of the hour. This was to provide churches 
and priests, and schools and school-teachers, for the people. Al- 
ready far too numerous for their clergy, the Catholic people 
were increasing by immigration alone at the rate of more than 
a quarter of a million a year. Every effort must be con^ 
centrated, it was thought, and every penny spent, in the vast 



The Apostolate of the Press. 357 

work of housing and feeding the wandering flocks of the 
Lord. And certainly the magnitude of the task and the suc- 
cess attained in performing it can excuse the indifference shown 
to the Apostolate of the Press, if anything can excuse it. But it 
seemed otherwise to Father Hecker, as it does now to us. For 
the CathoHc people could have been better and earHer cared for 
in their spiritual concerns if furnished with the abundant supply 
of good reading which the carrying out of Father Hecker's plan 
would have given them, and that at no great expense. What 
substitute for a priest is equal to a good book? What vocation 
to the priesthood has not found its origin in the pages of a 
good book, or at any rate been fostered by its devout lessons? 
And all history as well as experience proves that the best guar- 
antee of the faith of a Catholic, moving amidst kindly-disposed 
non-Cathohc neighbors, is the aggressive force of missionary zeal. 
The Pubhcation Society, if brought into active play, would have 
done much to create this zeal, and would have supplied its best 
arms of attack and defence by an abundance of free Cathohc 
reading. It would have helped on every good work by auxil- 
iary forces drawn from intelligent faith and instructed zeal. 

A closer view of the case shows that antecedents of a racial 
and social character among the people had something to do with 
the apathy we have been considering. To a great degree it still 
rests upon us, though such organized efforts as the Catholic 
Truth Society of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Holy Ghost 
Society of New Orleans indicate a change for the better. 

Had Father Hecker continued in good health there is a 
chance, though a desperate one, that he might have overcome 
all obstacles. Many zealous souls would have followed his lead. 
As a specimen we may name the Vicar-General of San Francisco, 
Father Prendergast, who, with the help of a few earnest friends, 
raised several thousand dollars in gold in that diocese alone. 
But in 1 871 Father Hecker's strength began to fail, and in the 
following year his active life was done. As already shown, it 
had been the intention to establish branch societies everywhere, 
whose delegates would regularly meet and control the entire 
work, giving the Church in America an approved, powerful aux- 
iliary dominantly made up of laymen. In that sense the Society 
never was so much as organized, the number of branch 
societies not at any time warranting such a step as a general 
meeting of their representatives. The money actually collected 



358 The Life of Father Hecker. 

was all spent in printing and circulating the tracts and oth'er 
publications given away or sold below cost, Father Hecker 
and the Paulists managing the entire work. When the 
collections gave out, Mr. George V. Hecker contributed a 
large sum for continuing the undertaking. The result was 
his finding himself in the publishing business, Avhich he was 
compelled to place as far as possible on a basis to meet the cur- 
rent outlay. The Society, as far as its name went, thus became 
a Catholic publishing firm, with Mr. Hecker mainly involved 
financially and Mr. Kehoe in charge of the business. Mr. 
Hecker sunk a small fortune in the Apostolate of the Press, 
much of it during the hard times between 1873 and 1876. The 
history of the whole affair is as curious as it is instructive, and 
hence we have given a pretty full account of it. It weighed 
heavy on Father Hecker's heart, though he astonished his friends 
by the equanimity with which he accepted its failure. His work, 
if it did not perish in a night like the prophet's gourd, withered 
quickly into very singular form and narrow proportions. The 
amazement of Protestant bigots at the appearance of the Catho- 
lic tracts, speechless and clamorous by turns ; the quaker guns 
of the Second Plenary Council, and the bright dreams of a vig- 
orous attack upon the enemy all along the line and by all classes 
of clergy and laity — how Father Hecker did in after years dis- 
cuss these topics, and how he did inspire all about him with his 
own enthusiastic hopes of a future and more successful effort! 
When he went to Europe in 1873, too feeble to hope for recov- 
ery, leaving the enterprise behind him in the same condition as 
his own broken health, how unmurmuring was his submission to 
the Divine and human wills which had brought all to naught! 

Not more than a few words need be said of his undertaking 
to buy a New York daily paper. It happened that in 1871 a 
prominent journal, a member of the Associated Press, could be 
bought for three hundred thousand dollars. In an instant, as it 
seems, Father Hecker grasped the opportunity. By personal ap- 
peals to the rich men of the city more than half the sum re- 
quired was subscribed, Archbishop McCloskey heading the list 
with a large amount. But soon the doctors had to be called in, 
and the enterprise went no further. 

How Father Hecker appeared to men when advocating the 
Apostolate of the Press, and how he spread the forceful majesty 
of Catholicity over his personal surroundings, is shown by Mr. 




Father HecVter in 1873. 
(From a photograph.) 



The Apostolate of the Press. 359 

James Parton's words in the article in the Atlantic Monthly al- 
ready quoted from : " The special work of this [the Paulist] 
community is to bring the steam printing-press to bear upon the 
spread of the Catholic rehgion in the United States." The re- 
sistless missionary power latent in the Church is thus spoken of 
by the same writer: 

"What a powerful engine is this! Suppose the six ablest 
and highest Americans were living thus, freed from all worldly 
cares, in an agreeable, secluded abode, yet near the centre of 
things, with twelve zealous, gifted young men to help and cheer 
them, a thousand organizations in the country to aid in dis- 
tributing their writings, and in every town a spacious edifice and 
an eager audience to hang upon their lips. What could they not 
effect in a lifetime of well-directed work.^" 

What follows, taken from a letter of Father Hecker's while 
sick in Europe in 1874, shows one of his aims in the Apostolate 
of the Press. It is suggestive of a result since attained, at least 
partially, in more than one religious community in America: 

" Monsignor Mermillod desired, early in the fall, that I should 
see Canon Schorderet, of this place [Fribourg in Switzerland], as 
he was engaged zealously with the press. This was one of my 
principal reasons for visiting this place. My surprise has been 
most gratifying in finding that he has organized, or rather be- 
gun, an association of girls to set types, etc., who live in com- 
munity and labor for the love of God in the Apostolate of the 
Press. He publishes several newspapers and journals. The 
house in which the members live is also the store and the pub- 
lishing house. Each girl has her own room. They are under 
the patronage of St. Paul. The canon is filled with the idea of 
St. Paul as the great patron of the Press, the first Christian 
jonrnalist. What has long been my dream of a movement of 
this nature has found here an incipient realization. Our views 
in regard to the mission of the press, and the necessity of run- 
ning it for the spread and defence of the faith as a form of 
Christian sacrifice in our day, are identical. You can easily 
fancy what interest and consolation our meeting and conversation 
must be to each other. His movement is the completion of The 
Catholic Publication Society of New York." 

As there may be some curiosity about Father Hecker's prin- 



360 The Life of Father Hecker. 

ciples as a public writer, in point of view of ecclesiastical 
authority, we give the following from a letter written just before 
the Vatican Council: 

"I. Absolute and unswerving loyalty to the authority of 
the Church, wherever and however expressed, as God's authority 
upon earth and for all time. 

"2. To seek in the same dispositions the true spirit of the 
Church, and be unreservedly governed by it as the wisdom of 
the Most High. 

"■ 3. To keep my mind and heart free from alL attachments 
to schools, parties, or persons in the Church, Hecker included, so 
that nothing within me may hinder the light and direction of 
the Holy Spirit. 

"4. In case any conflict arises concerning what Hecker may 
have spoken or written, or any Avork or movement in which he 
may be engaged, to re-examine. If wrong, make him retract at 
once. If not, then ask: Is the question of that importance that 
it requires defence, and the upsetting of attacks? If not of this 
importance, then not to delay and perhaps jeopardize the pro- 
gress of other works, and condemn Hecker to simple silence. 

" 5. In the midst of the imperfections, abuses, scandals, 
etc., of the human side of the Church, never to allow myself to 
think or to express a word which might seem to place a truth 
of the Catholic faith in doubt, or to savor of the spirit of dis- 
obedience. 

" 6. With all this in view, to be the most earnest and 
ardent friend of all true progress, and to work with all my 
might for its promotion through existing organizations and au- 
thorities." 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 

IN 1867 Father Hecker visited Europe in company with Father 
Hewit for the purpose of opening business relations be- 
tween The CathoHc Pubhcation Society and EngHsh, Irish, and 
Continental publishers, as well as to attend the Catholic Congress 
of Malines held in the summer of that year. The latter purpose 
was the chief inducement for the journey. The Archbishop of 
New York favored the project of holding a Catholic Congress 
in America, and encouraged Father Hecker to study the pro- 
ceedings at Malines with this end in view. Their stay at Ma- 
lines was full of instruction, as they heard there the renowned 
orators, Dupanloup and Montalembert, as well as others of note. 
The Catholic Congress of American laymen held in Baltimore a 
few years ago, and whose good effects are still felt, would have 
been assembled twenty years earlier if Father Hecker could have 
brought it about. These meetings were part of his scheme for 
that moral organization of Catholic forces which he knew to be 
so necessary for the fruitful working of the official unity of the 
Church. 

In the early part of the year 1869 Pius IX. wrote Father 
Hecker an autograph letter commending the various religious 
works which he and his community were engaged in, especially 
the Apostolate of the Press, and giving them all his blessing. 

" I have good news to tell you," he wrote to a friend. ^' The 
Holy Father has written me the 'tallest' kind of a letter, en- 
dorsing every good work in which I am engaged. Hurrah for 
Catholicity at Fifty-ninth Street ! My private opinion is that the 
Holy Father has gone too far in his endorsement of Hecker. 
He has made me feel ashamed of myself and humiliated." 

When Pius IX. called together the Council of the Vatican 
Father Hecker was urged by friends, among them several bish- 
ops, to go to Rome for the occasion. The late Bishop Rose- 
crans, of Columbus, Ohio, not being able to attend himself, ap- 
pointed Father Hecker his Procurator, or proxy. Before his 
departure he preached a sermon on the Council in the Paulist 
Church, which was printed in The Catholic World for Decern- 

361 



362 The Life of Father Hecker. 

ber, 1869. He devoted the greater part of it to quieting the wild 
forebodings of timid CathoHcs and combating the prognostics of 
outright anti-CathoHcs. He concluded by asking the people to 
pray that the hopes of a new and brighter era for religion, to 
date from this great event, might be fulfilled ; for it was com- 
monly believed and expressly intended that the entire state of 
the Church should be considered and legislated upon at the 
Council. The breaking out of the Franco-Prussian war, as is 
well known, together with the seizure of Rome by the Piedmon- 
tese, frustrated these hopes as to all but the very first part of 
the work laid out for the Council. 

Father Hecker arrived in Rome on the 26th of November, 
1869. When the preliminary business of organization had been 
finished it was announced that the procurators of absent bishops 
would not be admitted to the Council, as the number of prelates 
present in person was exceedingly large. But, he writes home : 

** The Archbishop of Baltimore has made me his theologian 
of his own accord. This gives me the privilege of reading all 
the documents of the Council, of knowing all that takes place in 
it, its discussions, etc. As his theologian I take part in the meet- 
ings and dehberations of the American hierarchy, which is, as it 
were, a permanent council concerning the interests of the Church 
in the United States, in which I feel a strong and special in- 
terest." 

Father Hecker had ever been a firm beHever in the doctrine 
of papal infallibility, as was the case with all American Catholics, 
prelates, priests, and people. Shortly before leaving for the 
Council we heard him say : " I have always heard the voice of 
Rome as that of truth itself." This he also showed very plainly 
in his farewell sermon. Speaking of the dread of undue papal 
influence over the bishops in the Council, he exclaimed : " All I 
have to say is, that if the Roman Court prevail [in the delibera- 
tions of the Council], it is the Holy Ghost who prevails through 
the Roman Court." But the tone of the controversy on the sub- 
ject of papal infallibility, which soon deafened the world, was too 
sharp for his nerves, and he abstained from mingling in it. As a 
matter of fact he determined to get away from Rome early in 
the spring of 1870. If the reader would know what we deem to 
have been Father Hecker's frame of mind about the proceedings 



The Vatican Council. 363 



of the Council we refer him to Bishop J. L. Spalding's excellent 
life of his uncle, the then Archbishop of Baltimore, whose views 
of both doctrine and policy were, as far as we can judge, shared 
by Father Hecker, who was his intimate and beloved friend. 

But his stay in the Eternal City, at this time more than ever 
before the focus of all religious truth, as well as the object of 
all human expectancy, had not been uneventful. Very much 
against his will he preached one of the sermons of the course given 
during the octave of the Epiphany, in the Church of San Andrea 
della Valle, and later on another, on an important occasion, in 
place of Archbishop Spalding, who had fallen ill. Much of his 
time he spent with the American bishops and the distinguished 
priests who were with them ; he renewed the old-time friendships 
of his stay in Rome twelve years before, seeing a good deal of 
Archbishop Connolly, of Halifax, N. S. ; he made new friends, 
too, among whom he names especially Mrs. Craven, the author 
of the Recit d'une Sceur ; and he formed acquaintance with lead- 
ing men and women of all nationalities. 

" There is not a day passes," he wrote home, ** that I do not 
make the acquaintance of persons of great importance, or ac- 
quire the knowledge of matters equally important for me to 
know; and I gain more in a day than one could in years at 
other times. For we may say that the intelligence, the science 
and sanctity of the Church are now gathered into this one city. 
Yet my heart is in my work at home." 

He had two private audiences with Pius IX., which, though 
of course brief, were very interesting ; the Pope remembered him, 
and expressed his interest in him and his work in America. The 
following extracts from letters to his brother George, written 
very soon after reaching Rome, recall an old friend : 

** I do not know whether I told you of my interview with 
Cardinal Barnabo. He received me literally with open arms. 
After an hour's conversation on several matters he ended by say- 
ing : * The affection and esteem which I had for you when you 
were here before has been increased by your labors since then, 
and my door is always open for you, and I shall always be glad 
to see you.' He entertains a high idea of the importance of 
The Catholic Worldr 



364 The Life of Father Hecker. 

" I had a most pleasant interview a few evenings since with 
Cardinal Barnabo," he writes in April, 1870, shortly before leav- 
ing. " Among other things he said : ' You ought to be grateful 
to God for three reasons : first, He drew you out of heresy ; 
second, He saved you from shipwreck in Rome ; third. He has 
given you talents, etc., to do great things for His Church in 
your country.' He takes great interest in the Paulists." 

Not alone in Rome did he meet with friends, but what fol- 
lows, written home in December, 1869, tells that his name and 
his vocation had been made familiar to many observant persons 
in Europe : 

" It surprises me to find my name familiar everywhere I have 
been on my travels. But magazines, newspapers, telegrams, and 
what-not have turned the world into a whispering gallery. But 
the less a man is known to men the more he knows of God ; so 
it seems to me, as a rule. Yet great activity may flow as a 
consequence of intimate union with Him whom theologians call 
Actus Piirissimus. From the fact of his being known, I enter- 
tain no better idea of Father Hecker than I ever did ; and could 
I get him again in the United States, he will be more devoted 
than ever to his work." 

Father Hecker gave his view of the bearing of the Vatican 
Council on the future of religion in a letter which will be found 
below. It concerns what we have already spoken of at some 
length and what we shall again refer to, namely, the relation 
between the inner and outer action of the Holy Ghost as fac- 
tors in the soul's sanctification. We heard Father Hecker several 
times affirm that he received special illumination from God on 
this subject while in Rome during the Council, and that some- 
thing like the very words in which properly to express himself 
were then given to him. It was written in the summer of 1872, 
but we quote it here before bidding adieu to Rome and accom- 
panying him in his short pilgrimage among the great shrines of 
Italy : 

" These two months past I have been driven away from 
home to one place and another by poor health. . . . The de- 
finition of the Vatican Council completes and fixes for ever the 
external authority of the Church against the heresies and errors 



The Vatican Council, 365 



of the last three centuries. . . . None but the declared ene- 
mies of the Church and misdirected Catholics can fail to see 
in this the directing influence of the Holy Ghost. 

" The Vatican Council has placed the Church in battle array, 
unmasked the concealed batteries of her enemies ; the conflict 
will be on a fair and open field, and it will be decisive. The 
recent hostility of the governments of Europe, and especially of 
Italy, against the Church, has shown the wisdom of the Vatican 
Council in preparing the Church to meet the crisis. The defini- 
tion leaves no longer any doubt in regard to the authority of 
the Chief of the Church. 

" For my part I sincerely thank the Jesuits for their influence 
in bringing it about, even though that were as great as some 
people would have us believe. . . . This had to be done 
before the Church could resume her normal course of action. 
What is, that } Why, the divine external authority of the 
Church completed, fixed beyond all controversy, her attention 
and that of all her children can now be turned more directly to 
the divine and interior authority of the Holy Ghost in the soul. 
The whole Church giving her attention to the interior inspira- 
tions of the Holy Spirit, will give birth to her renewal, and 
enable her to reconquer her place and true position in Europe 
and the whole world. For we must never forget that the im- 
mediate means of Christian perfection is the interior direction 
of the Holy Spirit, while the test of our being directed by the 
Holy Spirit and not by our fancies and prejudices, is our filial 
obedience to the divine external authority of the Church. 

*'If for three centuries the most influential schools in the 
Church gave a preponderance in their teaching and spiritual 
direction to those virtues which are in direct relation to the ex- 
ternal authority of the Church, it must be remembered that the 
heresies of that period all aimed at the destruction of this au- 
thority. The character of this teaching, therefore, was a neces- 
sity. There was no other way of preserving the children of the 
Church from the danger of this infection. If the effect of this 
teaching made Catholics childlike, less manly and active than 
others, this was under the circumstances inevitable. 

" The definition of the Vatican Council, thanks to the Jesuits, 
now gives us freedom to turn our attention in another direction, 
and to cultivating other virtues. If one infidel was equal to two 
Catholics in courage and action in the past, in the future one 



366 The Life of Father Hecker. 

Catholic, moved by the Holy Spirit, will be equal to half-a- 
dozen or a thousand infidels and heretics. 

"The stupid DoUingerites do not see or understand that what 
they pretend to desire — the renewal of the Church — can only be 
accomplished by the reign of the Holy Spirit throughout the 
Church, and that this can only be brought about by a filial 
submission to her divine external authority. Instead of their 
insane opposition to the definition of the Vatican Council and 
to the Jesuits, whose influence they have exaggerated beyond all 
measure, they ought to embrace both with enthusiasm, as open- 
ing the door to the renewal of the Church and a brighter and 
more glorious future. . . . To my view there is no other 
way or hope for such a future." 

He left Rome and his many warm friends there early in the 
spring of 1870, and, as he thought, for the last time. He was 
full of courage, he was conscious of not only perfect agreement 
with every credential of orthodoxy, but of interior impulses of 
a marvellously inspiring kind. In a very familiar letter to his 
brother's family he says that just before his departure, while 
standing in one of the great piazzas, looking at the concourse 
of representatives of all nations passing back and forth, gathered 
to take counsel with the Vicar of Christ for the well-being of 
the human race, he was so exhilarated that he could hardly refrain 
from calling out, *' Three cheers for Paradise, and one for the 
United States / " 

" I return with new hope and f.resher energy," he writes, 
'* for that better future for the Church and humanity w^hich is 
in store for both in the United States. This is the conviction 
of all intelligent and hopeful minds in Europe. They look to 
the other side of the Atlantic not only with great interest, but 
to catch the light which will solve the problems of Europe. 
Our course is surely fraught with the interests, hopes, and hap- 
piness of the race. I never felt so much like acquitting myself 
as a Christian and a man. The convictions which have hitherto 
directed my course have been deepened, confirmed, and strength- 
ened by recent experience here, and I return to my country a 
better Catholic and more an American than ever." 

That he might say Mass daily and at convenient hours while 
in Rome, crowded as it was at the time with bishops and priests, 



The Vatican Council. 367 



he obtained leave to do so in his own rooms. He made Httle 
pilgrimages to the great shrines of the Holy City, especially 
those of the Apostles and the typical martyrs, not forgetting, of 
course, his favorite modern saints, Philip Neri and Ignatius 
Loyola. The following are extracts from letters home telling of 
his celebration of St. Paul's Conversion and of the martyrdom 
of St. Agnes. The reader will remember that the " association 
of women " here mentioned was one of his earliest ideas, and 
one of the many whose realization Providence has given over, 
let us hope, to some souls especially favored by Father Hecker's 
gifts : 



" I pray much for each member of the community, and for 
light to guide it in the way of God. Within a short period 
much light has been given to me, and the importance of our 
work and its greatness have impressed me greatly, more than 
ever before. Yesterday I went to the Basilica of St. Paul, being 
the feast of his conversion, especially to invoke his aid. I felt 
that my visit was not in vain. ... I forgot no one of our 
dear community. . . . On the 21st I said Mass in the cata- 
combs of St. Agnes ; it was the day of her feast. More than 
twenty persons were present, friends and acquaintances. I gave 
eleven communions, and made a little discourse at the close of 
the Holy Sacrifice. The scene was most solemn and affecting. 

"What did I pray for? [during my Mass in St. Agnes's Cata- 
comb]. For you all, especially for the future. What future? 
How shall I name it 1 The association of women in our coun- 
try to aid the work of God through the Holy Church for its 
conversion. My convictions become fixed, and my determination 
to begin the enterprise consecrated. 

"At the close of the Mass I made a short discourse. Think 
of it, preaching once more in the Catacombs, surrounded with 
the tombs where the martyrs are laid and where the voice of 
the martyrs had spoken ! You can imagine that the impression 
was profound and solemn on us all. It was a piece of fool- 
hardiness on my part to open my lips and speak, when every- 
thing around us spoke so impressively and solemnly to our 
hearts. I will attempt to interpret this speech : In the days of 
Agnes, Christians were called upon to resist and conquer physi- 
cal persecution. In our day we are called upon to overcome 
intellectual and social opposition. They conquered ! We shall 



368 The Life of Father Hecker. 



conquer ! Agnes tells us there is no excuse for cowardice. 
Agnes was young, Agnes was weak, Agnes was a girl, and she 
conquered ! One Agnes can conquer the opposition of the 
nineteenth century. Such in substance was my discourse. The 
whole scene caused every one to be bathed in tears." 

After leaving Rome he went straight to Assisi, for whose 
saint he had ever felt a very powerful attraction. He thus de- 
scribes his impressions : 

"The people that I have seen about here have a milder 
countenance and a more cheerful look, more refined and human 
than the ItaHans around Rome. They are to the other ItaHans 
what the Swabians are to the other Germans. It is easy for 
the Minnesinger of the human, to become the Minnesinger of 
Divine love. 

"■ I could have kissed the stones of the streets of the town 
when I remembered that St. Francis had trodden these same 
streets, and the love and heroism which beat in his heart. 
. . . I said Holy Mass at the tomb of St. Francis, and in 
presence of his body this morning — a votive Mass of the Saint. 
It seems I could linger weeks and weeks around this holy spot. 
. What St. Francis did for his age one might do for 
one's own. He touched the chords of feeling and of aspiration 
in the hearts of the men and women of his time and organized 
them for action. St. Dominic did the same for the intellectual 
wants of the time. Why not do this for our age ? Who shall 
so touch the springs of men's hearts and reach their minds as 
to lead them to the desire of united action, and organize them 
so as to bring forth great results } There is no doubt that the 
age wants this. Who is there that is inspired from a higher 
sphere of life, and sees into the future, so as to be able to speak 
to men and to invite them to do the work of God in our day ? 
Who takes all humanity into his heart, and with the past and 
present at once in his mind can inspire men to live and act for 
the divine future ? " 

He also visited the Holy House at Loretto, and, passing 
through Venice and Milan to see the great churches of these 
cities, *' the despair of all modern church-builders," as he says, 
he came finally to Genoa. 



The Vatican Council. 369 



" I turned my steps," he writes, *' to the general hospital ; 
and why ? Because the interest of my heart was there, and has 
been there for upward of twenty years. It is the spot where 
St. Catherine of Genoa labored for the miserable, loved God, 
and sanctified her soul. Her body is in a crystal case, uncor- 
rupted, withered in appearance but not unpleasant to the sight. 
When the curtain was withdrawn and I could see her face and 
her feet, which were uncovered, I could not help exclaiming 
with the Psalmist, '■ God is wonderful in His saints ! * I cannot 
express what an attraction I have always felt for St. Catherine 
of Genoa. She knew how to reconcile the greatest fidelity to 
the interior attrait and guidance of the Holy Spirit with perfect 
iilial obedience to the external and divine authority of the 
Holy Church. She knew how to reconcile the highest degree 
of divine contemplation with the greatest extent of works of 
external - charity. She was a heroic lover of God, for she re- 
sisted His gifts, lest she might forget the Giver in them, and 
be hindered the entire possession of Him, and the complete 
union of her soul with Him. As a virgin she was pure, a 
model as a wife, and as a widow a saint ! Her writings on the 
spiritual life are masterpieces, and though a woman, no man 
has surpassed, if any has equalled, the eloquence of her pen." 

He procured an excellent copy of St. Catherine's portrait 
preserved at the hospital, and brought it home with him. He 
had done the same for Sts. Philip and Ignatius before leaving 
Rome. St. Catherine's picture represents a handsome face, ear- 
nest, simple, and joyful ; she is dressed plainly as a devout 
woman living in the world, lovely to look upon and inspiring 
love of God and man in the beholder. 

Father Hecker's stay in Europe during the winter of 1869-70 
and the following spring awakened in his soul aspirations 
towards a wide and enduring religious movement in the Old 
World, similar to that which he had started in the New. At the 
time he did not anticipate any personal share in it other than 
encouragement and direction from America. The reader will 
learn in the sequel that these aspirations were again felt, and 
that with renewed force, when he returned to Europe in ill 
health three years later. 

What follows is from a pocket diary, and from a letter 
home : 



370 The Life of Father Hecker, 

" The work that Divine Providence has called us to do in 
our own country, were its spirit extended throughout Europe, 
would be the focus of new light and an element of regenera- 
tion. Our country has a providential position in our century in 
relation to Europe, and our efforts to Catholicize and sanctify 
it give it an importance, in a religious aspect, of a most interest- 
ing and significant character." 

" I do not wish to cross the Atlantic ever again, and there- 
fore would like to finish with Europe and Italy. As for the 
notable men of the day, I have seen many of them — enough of 
them. My present experience in one way and another seems 
to have prepared me to lay a foundation for action which will 
be suitable not only for the present but for centuries to come. 
No one of my previous convictions have been disturbed, but 
much strengthened and enlarged and settled. I see nothing, 
practically, in which I am engaged, that, were it in my power, 
I would now wish to alter or abandon. I shall return with the 
resolution to continue them with more confidence, more zeal, 
more energy." 

He arrived in New York in June, 1870. 




CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE LONG ILLNESS. 

WE have now arrived at the last period of Father Hecker's life, 
the long illness which completed his meed of suffering and 
of merit, and gradually drew him down to the grave. It will not 
be expected that we shall treat extensively of this subject ; nor 
can one who writes in the beginning of the '90s about the clos- 
ing scenes of a life which ended late in the '80s go very much 
into detail without bringing in the living. As to Father Heck- 
er's latter days in this world, it may be said that his joy and 
courage and buoyancy of spirits, as well as his hopeful outlook 
upon men and things, were all tried in the furnace of extreme 
bodily suffering as well as of the most excruciating mental 
agony. ' 

Four distinct epochs divide Father Hecker's life : one when 
in early days he was driven from home and business and ulti- 
mately into the Church by aspirations towards a higher life ; 
another marks the extraordinary dealings of God with his soul 
during his novitiate and time of studies ; the third was the strug- 
gle in Rome which produced the Paulist community ; the fourth 
and last was the illness which we are now to consider. The 
closing scenes of his life are scattered over more than sixteen 
years, filled with almost every form of pain of body and dark- 
ness of soul. 

From severe colds, acute headaches, and weakness of the 
digestive organs Father Hecker was a frequent sufferer. But 
towards the end of the year 1871 his headaches became much 
more painful, his appetite left him, and sleeplessness and excita- 
bility of the nervous system were added to his other ailments. 
Remedies of every kind were tried, but without permanent re- 
lief, and, although he lectured and preached and did his other 
work all winter and most of the following spring, his weakness 
increased, until by the summer of 1872 he was wholly incapaci- 
tated. The winter of 1872-3 was spent in the South without 
notable improvement, and early in the following summer, acting 
upon the advice of physicians, he went to Europe. " Look upon 
me as a dead man," he said with tears as he bade the commu- 
nity farewell ; '' God is trying me severely in soul and body, and 
I must have the courage to suffer crucifixion." He also assured 

371 



372 The Life of Father Hecker. 

us that whatever action should be taken in adopting the Consti- 
tutions, then under consideration, had his hearty approval before- 
hand. He was accompanied to Europe by Father Deshon, from 
whom he parted with deep emotion at Ragatz, a health resort 
in Switzerland. 

Father Hecker remained more than two years in Europe, try- 
ing every change of climate and scene, and every other remedy 
advised by physicians, and returned to New York in October, 
1875, with unimproved health. He had derived most benefit from 
a journey up the Nile in the winter of 1873-4, and a short visit 
to the Holy Land in the following spring. While in Europe his 
mind was busy, and he managed to meet many of his old friends 
there, and formed new and important acquaintances. In Feb- 
ruary, 1875, he published his pamphlet. An Exposition of the 
Church in View of the Present Needs of the Age, which contains 
his estimate of the evils of our times, especially in Europe, and the 
adequate remedy for them. On his return to New York he was 
too weak to bear the routine of the house in Fifty-ninth Street 
and lived with his brother George till the fall of 1879, when he 
removed to the convent, remaining with the community till his 
death nine years afterwards. 

As to the physical sufferings of those last sixteen years, they 
were never such as to impair Father Hecker's mental soundness. 
He never had softening of the brain, as the state of his nerves 
before going to Europe seemed to indicate ; nor had he heart 
disease, as was for a time suspected. His mental powers were 
intact from first to last, though his organs of speech were some- 
times too slow for his thoughts. His digestion had been im- 
paired by excessive abstinence in early manhood, dating back to 
a time before he was a Catholic, and his nervous system, also, 
had been injured by that means, as well as by the pressure of 
excessive work in later life. Gradual impoverishment of. the 
blood was the result, and the dropping down of nervous force, 
till at last the body struck work altogether. Four or five years 
before his death Father Hecker became subject to frequent at- 
tacks of angina pectoris, said to be the most painful of all dis- 
eases. During the sixteen years of illness every symptom of 
bodily illness was aggravated by the least attention to commu- 
nity affairs or business matters, and also by interior trials which 
will presently be described. 

He was not unwilling to trace his breaking down to exces- 



The Long Illness. 373 



sive austerity in former years. Once when asked for advice 
about corporal mortification he answered : ^^ Don't go too fast. 
Remember St. Bernard's regret for having gone too far with 
such things in his youth. For my part, for many years I prac 
tised frightful penances, and now I fear that much of my physi- 
cal helplessness is due to that cause." His state was not one 
of utter debility, though that quickly resulted if watchfulness 
were relaxed, or from application to responsible duties. But his 
strength never was "much to speak of," '' only so, so," to use his 
own expressions, which signified a very small amount of the 
power of exertion or endurance in the muscles and nerves. 

''What about my health?" he wrote from Europe. ''There 
are days when I feel quite myself, and then others when I sink 
down to the bottom.' My condition of mind and body often 
perplexes me, and there is nothing left me but to abandon all 
into the hands of Divine Providence. The end of it all is en- 
tirely in the dark, and were there not parallel epochs in my past 
life, and similar things in the lives of some others which I have 
read, my perplexity would be greater." 

And again, from Ragatz, in the summer of 1875 : 

" My state of health is much the same. I found last week 
that my pulse was bounding in a few hours from the sixties 
into the nineties without any apparent cause. Yesterday I de- 
termined to consult the leading physician here. He examined 
me, and, like all others, attributes everything to my nerves, result- 
ing from impoverished blood. I say to myself: 1st, How long 
will the machine keep working in this style? 2d, There will be 
a smash-up some day. 3d, Or perhaps I shall be able to get 
up more steam and run it a while longer. Who knows?" 

And in another letter from the same place : 

" Even here, freed from all [labors], it often seems to me 
that a good breeze, if it struck me in the right place, would 
drive the soul out of my body, so lightly is it connected with 
it, so slightly do they hold together." 

As already said, his trip to Egypt had given him a temporary 
relief, and this was due, so he supposed, to utter change of 
scene and to solitude. When it was over he wrote as follows : 



374 T^^^ Life of Father Hecker. 

''This trip has been in every respect much more to my bene- 
fit than my most sanguine expectations led me to hope. It 
seems to me almost like an inspiration, such have been its bene- 
ficial effects to my mind and body. In Nubia there reigned pro- 
found silence and repose, and in lower Egypt, although there is 
more activity and evidence of modern life, still it is quiet and 
tranquil. I feel somewhat like one who has been in solitude for 
three or four months." 

*'My daily regime," he writes to his brother and Mrs. 
Hecker, from Italy, "has not changed these two years which I 
have spent in Europe. If I rise before nine I feel it the whole 
day. In the morning I awake about seven for good, and take a 
cup of tea with some bread and butter. I then read; sometimes, 
not often, T write a note in bed, and rise about nine or ten. I 
take a lunch at twelve and dine at six. My appetite is not 
much at any time. My sleep, so so. [All through his illness he 
went to bed at nine or shortly after.] I feel for the most part 
like a man balancing whether he will keep on swimming or go 
under the water. Sometimes I take a nap two or three times a 
day — if I can get it. There are weeks when I do not and cannot 
put my pen to paper. To write a note is a great effort. . . . 
Though my strength is so little my mind is not unoccupied, and 
I keep up some reading." 

Just in what way his spiritual difficulties accelerated his 
bodily decline it is hard to say, for he was generally extremely 
reticent as to his interior life. A few words dropped unawares 
and at long intervals, and carefully taken down at the time, give 
fleeting glimpses into a soul which was a dark chamber of sor- 
row, though it was sometimes peaceful sorrow. To this we can 
fortunately add some sentences written in an unusually confiden- 
tial mood in letters from Europe. Before his illness he was 
over-joyful, or so it seemed to some to whom this trait of his 
was a temptation. ''Why," it was said, "religion seems to have 
no penitential side to Father Hecker at all." From the day of 
his ordination until his illness began he might have made the 
Psalmist's words his own: "There be many that say, Who shall 
show us any good ? Lord, Thou hast set upon us the light of 
Thy countenance. Thou hast put gladness in my heart." But 
now the light of that radiant joy had faded away, and the face 



The Long Illness. 375 



of God, though as present as ever before, loomed over him dark, 
threatening, and majestic. He had studied spiritual doctrine too 
well not to be ready for this trial, nor had it been sent to him 
without warning. Nevertheless the sensible presence of God's 
love had been so vivid and constant that he could alternate the 
joy of labor with that of prayer with the greatest ease. And 
now it was an alternation, not of choice but of dire compulsion, 
between bitter, helpless inaction, and a state of prayer which was 
a mere dread of an all-too-near Judge. It seemed to him as if 
he had boasted, " I said in my abundance I shall not be 
moved for ever," and now he must end the inspired sentence, 
*'Thou hast turned ^.way Thy face from me and I became 
troubled." When this obscuration of the Divine Love first 
grew upon him the misery of it was intolerable and was borne 
with extreme difficulty. The pain was lessened at intervals as 
time passed on, and before a year had elapsed, his letters 
from Europe, though they did not before complain of desola- 
tion, now show its previous existence by hailing the advent of 
seasons of interior peace. But from beginning to end of this 
entire period of his life we have not found a word of his 
speaking of joy. And again, even the peace would go and the 
desolation return; the face of God, not any time smiling, had 
lost its calm regard and was once more bent frowning upon 
him. The following extracts from letters written from Switzer- 
land in the autumn of 1874, and within a month of each other, 
tell of these alternations of storm and calm : 

"As to my health these last ten days I cannot say much. 
My interior trials have been such that it would be impossible 
that my health should improve under them. As long as they 
last I must expect to suffer. I see nothing before me but dark- 
ness, and there is nothing within my soul but desolation and 
bitterness. Cut off from all that formerly interested me, ban- 
ished as it were from home and country, isolated from every- 
thing, the doors of heaven shut, I feel overwhelmed with misery 
and crushed to atoms. My being away from my former duties 
is a negative relief ; it frees me from the additional burden and 
trouble which would necessarily fall upon me if I were within 
reach." 

''There remains nothing for me but to confide in, to follow, 
and abandon myself to that Guide who has directed me from 



376 The Life of FatJier Hecker. 

the beginning. I read Job, Jeremias, and Thomas a Kempis, 
and meditate on the sufferings of Our Lord and the character 
of His death. I recall to mind what I have read on these mat- 
ters in spiritual writers and the Lives of the Saints. I reflect 
how from the very nature of the purification of the soul this 
darkness, bitterness, and desolation must be ; but not a drop of 
consolation is distilled into my soul. The only words which 
come to my lips are " My soul is sad unto death," and these I 
repeat and repeat again. At all times, in rising and in going to 
bed, in company and at my meals, I whisper them to myself, 
while to others I appear cheerful and join in the- talk. At the 
most I can but die ; this is the lot of all, and no one can tell 
the moment when. 

"Withal, I try to have patience, resignation, endurance, and 
trust in God, waiting on His guidance and leaving all in His 
hands." 

" Since my last I have had some relief from my interior 
trials, and no sooner does this take place than my body recov- 
ers some of its strength. It would not have been possible for 
me to have borne much longer the desolation which filled my 
soul. Each new trial, when passed, leaves me more quiet and 
tranquil. Past periods of my life give me hope that this trial 
will also come to an end. What will that be ? How will it hap- 
pen ? and when? God alone knows. He that has led me so 
many years still guides me, and resistance to His will is worse 
than vain. Judging from that same past, my expectations to re- 
turn to my former labors are not sanguine. It seems to me 
sometimes that I am cut off from these to be prepared for a 
deeper and broader basis for future action. But whether this 
will be so or not, is in the hands of God. Whatever He wills 
me to do, I must do it. My own will has become null, and all 
that is left for me to do is to wait on His good pleasure and 
His own time. To act or not to act, to suffer or not to suffer, 
to speak or to keep silence, to return to my former labors or 
never to return, to live on or die, all have become indifferent to 
me. I am in God's hands, with no will of my own ; for He has 
taken it, and it is for Him to do with me whatever He pleases. 
If this be a source of pain to others, none but God knows 
what it has cost me. There is nothing, therefore, left but 
to wait in trust on God's will and His mercy and good 
pleasure." 



The Long Illness. 377 



And again the darkened heavens are above him : 

" Death invited, alas ! will not come. What a relief it would 
be from a continuous and prolonged death ! " 

The obscurity of the drawing of the Holy Ghost, as well as 
of God's designs, and his incessant fretting against this, partly 
involuntary and, as he confesses, partly voluntary also, '' disturbs 
my health and reduces my strength." 

Next to the evil self-company of an unforgiven sinner there is 
no loneliness so sad as that of the invalid. He needs company 
most who is worst company for himself. Yet Father Hecker 
has not left a single word which would suggest that during 
more than two years of absence from all his life associates in re- 
ligion, as well as from his blood kindred, whom he loved with a 
powerful love, he felt the lack of human companionship. One 
reason for this was his contemplative nature, and this was the 
main reason. He was born to be a hermit, and was an active 
liver only by being born again for a special vocation. Another 
reason was that his mind was so constituted that, when subjected 
to trial, it rested better when quite out of sight of everybody 
and everything associated with past responsibilities. He bade 
adieu to Father Deshon when the latter left him at Ragatz with 
sorrow, but without reluctance ; and when a year afterwards it 
was suggested that one of the community should come to Eu- 
rope and keep him company, he refused without hesitation, say- 
ing that his companion would be burdened with a sick man's 
infirmities, or the sick man distressed by his companion's inactiv- 
ity on his account. But towards the very end of his life there 
were times when he felt the need of congenial company and 
was extremely grateful for it. But this did not happen often, 
and when it did it was because the waves of despondency which 
submerged him were heavier and darker than usual. 

The following extract from a letter shows this state of mind : 

" As I get somewhat more accustomed to my separation from 
all that was so dear to me, the strangeness of my position seems 
to me more and more inexplicable. All the things which are 
going on in Fifty-ninth Street were once all to me, and nothing 
appeared beyond. To be separated from all ; to look upon one's 
past as a dream ; to become a stranger to one's self, wandering 
from city to city, from country to country, ever in a strange 



378 The Life of Father Hecker. 

land and among strangers; to be attached to nothing; to see no 
definite future; to be an enigma to one's self; to find no light in 
any one to guide me, isolated from all except God — who will 
explain what all this means ? where it will end ? and how soon ? 
As I become resigned to this state of things my health suffers 
less. Occasionally my interior trials and struggles are almost 
insupportable, but less so than if I were surrounded by those 
who have an affection for me. To worry others without their 
being able to give me any relief would only increase my suffer- 
ing, and finally become unbearable. All is for the best ! God's 
will be done ! " 

What he wrote to a friend suffering from illness he applied 
to himself ; he made spiritual profit, as best he might, from 
separation from the men and the vocation he loved so well : 

'* I can sympathize with you more completely in your sick- 
ness being myself not well. To be shut off from the world, 
and cut off from human activity — and this is what it means to 
be sick — gives the soul the best conditions to love God alone, 
and this is Paradise upon earth. Blessed sickness! which de- 
taches the soul from all creatures and unites it to its sovereign 
Good. But one's duties and responsibilities, what of these in the 
meantime ? We must give them all up one day, and why not 
now } We think ourselves necessary, and others try to make 
us believe the same ; there is but little truth and much self-love 
in this. ' What else do I require of thee,' says our Lord in 
Thomas a Kempis, ' than that thou shouldst resign thyself in- 
tegrally to Me.' This is what our Lord is fighting for in our 
souls." 

Yet in having his life-work torn away from him he was like 
a man whose leg has been crushed and then amputated, the 
phantom of the lost limb aching in every muscle, bone, and 
nerve. This was partly the secret of his pain while in Europe, 
at the mere thought of his former active life ; it haunted him 
with memories of its lost opportunities, its shortcomings in 
motive or achievement, or what he fancied to be such, in view 
of the Divine justice, now always reckoning with him. 

He was ever cheerful in word, even when the pallor of his 
face and the blazing of his eyes betrayed his bodily and spirit- 
ual pain. " The end of religion is joy, joy here no less than 



The Long Illness. 379 



joy hereafter," he once insisted, and he argued long and ener- 
getically for the proposition ; but meantime he was racked with 
inner agony and was too feeble to walk alone. In his letters 
and diaries he speaks of his illness and of its symptoms as of 
those of another person of whom he was giving news. 

His wanderings in Europe were like gropings after the 
Divine will in the midst of the spirit's night, often in anguish, 
often in tranquillity, never in his former bounding joy, always 
with submission, beforehand, at the moment, and afterwards. 
Although the Divine Will gave a cold welcome, he sought no 
other refuge. 

" There are a thousand things," he writes, " that would worry 
me if I would only let them, but with God's help I keep them 
off at arm's length. His grace suffices, or in His presence all 
the things of this world disappear. God alone has been always 
the whole desire of my heart, and what else can I wish than 
that His will may be wholly fulfilled in me. Having rooted 
everything else out of my heart, and cut me off from all 
things, what other desire can I have than that He who has 
begun the work should finish it according to His design. It 
is not important that I should know what that design is; it is 
enough that I am in His hands, to do with me whatever He 
pleases. To be and to live in His presence is all." 

And again : 

" The mind quiet both as to the past and the future, con- 
tented with the present moment : as to the past, leaving it 
out of sight ; as to the future, unsolicitous. As to the present, 
satisfied to be outwardly homeless, cut off from all past friend- 
ships and relations. The present gives me all the conditions 
required for preparation for the future. Any time these two 
years past I would have made an entire renunciation of all re- 
lations to my past labors and position, but waited as a dictate 
of prudence. Now I feel ready to make it with calmness and 
in view of all its consequences." 

" No sooner do I set my mind to pray than God fills it with 
Himself," Father Hecker was once heard to say. And this 
power of prayer by no means left him after 1872; only that the 
God who filled him was no longer revealed as the Supreme 



380 The Life of Father Hecker. 






Love, but as the Supreme Majesty. "There was once a priest," 
he said, speaking of himself, "who had been very active for 
God, until at last God gave him a knowledge of the Divine 
Majesty. After seeing the Majesty of God that priest felt very 
strange and was much humbled, and knew how little a thing he 
was in comparison with God." Comparison with God ! It was 
this that gave him, as it did Job, a terror of the Divine justice 
beyond words to express, and impressed that air of spiritual de- 
jection upon him which struck his old friends as so strongly in 
contrast with his former happy and vivacious manners. "You 
will never know," he once said, while being helped into bed 
after a very sad day, "how much I have suffered till you are 
in heaven." Meantime this awful Deity, so prompt to enter 
Father Hecker's mind, coming at times like a withering blast 
from the desert, was still the only attraction of his soul, the 
only object of his love. He could no more keep his mind off 
God now than he could before, and now God killed him, and 
then He made him alive. The ideas of the Divine goodness, 
patience, mercy, and love which formerly welled up in abun- 
dant floods at the thought of God, at the same thought now 
were dried up and disappeared. "Oh!" he once exclaimed, "if 
I could only be sure that I shall not be damned ! " This was 
said unawares while listening to the life of a saint. The 
reader will, therefore, understand that Father Hecker's inner 
trouble was not a state of mere aridity, a difficulty of con- 
centration of mind on spiritual things, or a vagrancy of 
thought ; it was a perpetual facing of his Divine Accuser and 
Judge, a trembling woe at the sight of Infinite Majesty on the 
part of one for whom the Divine love was the one necessary 
of life for soul and body. Yet he knew that this was really 
a higher form of prayer than any he had yet enjoyed, that 
it steadily purified his understanding by compelling ceaselessly 
repeated acts of faith in God's love, purified his will by con- 
stant resignation of every joy except God alone — God received 
by any mode in which it might please the Divine Majesty to 
reveal Himself. He was, therefore, willing, nay, in a true sense, 
glad thus to walk by mere faith and live by painful love. "I 
should deem it a misfortune if God should cure me of my 
infirmities and restore me to active usefulness, so much have 
I learned to appreciate the value of my passive condition of 
soul." This he said less than three years before his death. 



The Long Illness. 381 



And about the same time, to a very intimate friend : " God 
revealed to me in my novitiate that at some future time I 
should suffer the crucifixion. I have always longed for it; 
but oh, now that it has come it is hard, oh, it is terrible!" 
And this he said weeping. 

One aspect of the Divine Majesty which threatened for years 
to overpower him was the Last Judgment. "- God has given me 
to see the terrors of the day of judgment," he once said, " and 
it has tried me with dreadful severity ; but it is a wonderfully 
great privilege." Humility grew upon him day by day. No 
one who knew him well in his day of greatest power could 
think him a proud man, but his confidence in his vocation, 
and in himself as God's representative, had been immense. 
The following, from a memorandum, shows how he ended : 

" I told him how courageous I felt. Answer : That is the 
way I used to feel. I used to say, O Lord ! I feel as if 
I had the whole world on my shoulders ; and all I've got to 
say is, O Lord ! I am sorry you've given me such small 
potatoes to carry on my back. But now — well, when a mos- 
quito comes in I say. Mosquito, have you any good to do 
me ? Yes ? Then I thank you, for I am glad to get good 
from a mosquito." 

It will thus be seen that whatever diseases may have enfee- 
bled Father Hecker's body, his spirit suffered from a malady 
known only to great souls — thirst for God. This gave him rest 
neither day nor night, or allowed him intervals of peace only 
to return with renewed force. Some men love gold too much 
for their peace of mind, some love women too much, and some 
power; men like Father Hecker love the Infinite Good too much 
to be happy in soul or sound in body unless He be revealed to 
them as a loving father. And this knowledge of God once pos- 
sessed and lost again, although it breeds a purer, a more per- 
fectly disinterested love, leaves both soul and body in a state of 
acute distress. " My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth 
for Thee, in a dry and desert land without water." 

Tried by these visitations, he was free to acknowledge that 
in past times he had been favored above others : 

"Oh! there was a time," he said, "when I was borne along 
high above nature by the grace of God, and I feared that I 



382 The Life of Father Hccker. 

should die without being subject to nature, and should never 
feel the need of the supernatural. But for many years now I 
have been left by God to my natural weakness and get nothing 
whatever except what I earn." 

The following words of his indicate the cleansing process of 
these divine influences ; it is from memoranda : 

" He said to me once, after he had been for nine or ten 
years subject to almost unceasing desolation of spirit, 'All this 
suffering, though it has been excruciating, has greatly purified 
me and was of the last necessity to me. Oh, how_ proud I was ! 
how vain I was ! And these long years of abandonment by God 
have healed me.' I think this was the only time I ever knew 
him to connect his sufferings with fault. What he said may 
have referred to the mere temper and frame of his mind rather 
than to particular, specific faults. He undoubtedly thought more 
highly of human nature before that desolation began than he 
did at the end of it." 

Meantime he used every aid for the assuagement of his inte- 
rior sufferings, just as he conscientiously tried every means for 
the restoration of his bodily health. Good books helped him 
greatly. He recited his Breviary as he would read a new and 
interesting book, underlining here and there, and noting on the 
margins. But during most of his time of illness his infirmities 
made the Divine Office impossible. EVery day he read or had 
read to him some parts of the Scriptures in English. " With- 
out the Book of Job," he used to say, *' I would have broken 
down completely." Lallemant, St. John of the Cross, St. Te- 
resa, St. Catherine of Genoa, and other authors of a mystical 
tendency he frequently used. But next to the Scriptures no 
book served him so well during his illness as Abandonment^ or 
Entire Surrender to Divine Providence^ a small posthumous trea- 
tise of Father P. J. Caussade, S.J., edited and published by 
Father H. Ramiere, S.J., with a strong defence of the author's 
doctrine by way of preface. At Father Hecker's suggestion it 
was translated into English by Miss Ella McMahon, and has al- 
ready soothed many hearts in difficulties of every kind. It is 
an ingenious compendium of all spiritual wisdom, but it seemed 
to Father Hecker that submission to the Divine Will is taught in 
its pages as it has never been done since the time of the Apos- 



The Long Illness. 383 



ties. The little French copy which he used is thumbed all to 
pieces. He used it incessantly when in great trouble of mind 
and knew it almost by heart. As he read its sentences or heard 
them read he would ejaculate, " Ah, how sweet that is ! " " Oh, 
what a great truth I " '' Oh, that is a most consoling doctrine ! " 
just as a man exhausted with thirst and covered with dust, as 
he drinks and bathes at a gushing fountain in the desert, calls 
out and sighs and smiles. 

Did he not find men here and there in his travels with whom 
he would take counsel and who could comfort him ? There is 
little trace of it, though he never lacked sympathetic friends for 
his bodily ailments. In truth he tried to maintain a cheerful ex- 
terior, though occasionally he failed in his attempts to do so. 
Only once do we find by his letters and diaries that he opened 
his mind freely on his interior difficulties while in Europe, and 
that was, to Cardinal Deschamps, who gave him, he writes, very 
great comfort. 

No part of his sojourn in the Old World pleased and profit- 
ed him so much as his trip up the Nile in the winter of 1873-4. 

" In information of most various kinds," he writes, " it has 
been the richest four months of my whole life. The value intel- 
lectually and religiously as well as physically is incalculable. 
Given but one trip, it would puzzle me to name any which can 
compare with that up the Nile to Wady-Halfa. Nubia must be 
included. It has something of its own which you can find 
neither in Egypt nor elsewhere : silence, repose, almost total 
solitude, and its own peculiar people." 

His companions were few in number and congenial in tastes, 
the climate mild and equable, and the people and country alto- 
gether novel. The journey, which extended into Nubia, was 
made in a flat-boat, the Sittina Miriam el Adra — Our Lady 
Mary the Virgin — the sail propelling them when the wind was 
fair, the crew towing them in calm weather ; when the wind was 
contrary they tied up to the bank. The progress was, of course, 
slow, and yet his diary, the only one written during his illness 
with ample entries, shows that every day gave new enjoyment. 
He was provided with letters which enabled him to say Mass at 
the missionary stations along the river. The Avonderful ruins of 
the ancient cities of Egypt gave him much entertainment. But 



384 TJie Life of Father Hecker. 

his mind dwelt fondly on thoughts of Abraham, Joseph, and the 
chosen people, and especially upon the Holy Family, as well as 
the monks of the desert. He was much interested in the Mo- 
hammedan natives ; their open practice of prayer, the instinc- 
tive readiness with which the idea of God and of eternity was 
welcomed to their thoughts, and, withal, their utter religious 
stagnation, which he traced to their ignorance of the Trinity, 
filled his mind with questions. How to convert these slug- 
gish contemplatives, what type of Catholicity would be likely 
to flourish in the East, and how it could be reconciled with 
the stirring traits of the West, busied his mind. He often 
recalls his distant friends and contrasts new America with old 
Egypt. He wrote home when opportunity served, as thus to 
Father Hewit : 

" With the hope that this note will reach you in due season, 
I greet you from this land from which Moses taught, and which 
our infant Saviour trod, with a right merry Christmas and a 
happy New Year to yourself and all the members of the com- 
munity, all in the house, and the parishioners of St. Paul's. In 
my prayers all have a share and in the Holy Sacrifice of the al- 
tar. My heart and its affections are present with you. Could I 
realize its desire, I would shed a continuous flow of blessings on 
each one of you like a great river Nile — the river which Abra- 
ham saw and whose banks were hallowed by the footsteps of 
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Remember me especially in all your 
prayers on these great festivals. Offer up a Mass for my special 
intention on each of them." 

The excursion to Nubia and back did him so much good 
physically, and left his mind with a peace which seemed so set- 
tled, that for a time he had strong hopes of recovery ; but he 
was soon undeceived. 

On the 15th of April Father Hecker left Cairo for Jerusalem, 
and spent some weeks in the Holy Land, continuing to enjoy 
an interval of spiritual relief. He writes : 

" In reciting the Gloria and the Credo, after having been in 
the localities where the great mysteries which they express took 
place, one is impressed in a wonderful manner with their actual- 
ity. The truths of our holy faith seem to saturate one's blood, 
enter into one's flesh, and penetrate even to the marrow of one's 
bones." 



The Long Illness. 385 



The first greeting which he sent from the holy places was a 
letter to his mother, full of expressions of the most tender affec- 
tion and gratitude, as well as of ardent religious emotions pro- 
duced by moving among the scenes of our Lord's life. He en- 
closed a little bunch of wild flowers plucked from Mount Sion. 
He soon returned to Europe to escape the hot summer of Pales- 
tine, and began his round of visits to health resorts, shrines, and 
occasionally to a friend of more than usual attraction. His 
brother John died about this time, and this news drew from him 
a letter of encouragement and condolence to their mother. To 
George Hecker and his wife he wrote often, his letters being full 
of affection, of entire submission to the Divine Will, and of relig- 
ious sentiments. 

The following may be of interest as indicating the return of 
his disconsolate frame of mind : 

" I have taken to writing fables. Here is one : Once upon a 
time a bird was caught in a snare. The more it struggled to 
free itself, the more it got entangled. Exhausted, it resolved to 
wait with the vain hope that the fowler, when he came, would 
set it at liberty. His appearance, however, was not the signal 
for its restoration to smiling fields and fond companions, but the 
forerunner of death at his hands. Foolish bird ! why did you 
go into the snare? Poor thing; it could not find food anywhere, 
and it was famishing with hunger ; the seed was so attractive, 
and he who had baited the trap knew it full well, and that the 
bird could not resist its appetite. The fowler is our Lord. The 
bait is Divine Love. The bird is the soul. O skilful catcher 
of souls ! O irresistible bait of Divine Love ! O pitiable victim ! 
but most blessed soul ; for in the hands of our Lord the soul 
only dies to self to be transformed into God." 

In all his journeyings in search of beneficial change of air or 
for the use of medicinal waters, he endeavored to take in the 
famous shrines ; as for places noted in profane history, or the 
usual resorts of tourists, there is not the least mention of them 
in his letters, unless an exception be made in favor of those in 
Egypt and some art galleries in Europe. But, " attracted by St. 
Catherine," he went back to her relics at Genoa once more. 
Drawn by St. Francis de Sales, he made a visit to Annecy which 
had a soothing effect upon him, for that saint was another of his 



386 The Life of Father Hecker. 

favorites. He often went out of his way to see a friend, or 
to seek the acquaintance of some man or woman of reputation 
in religious circles, and he was himself surprised at the number 
of those who had heard of him and wished to know him. He 
readily formed acquaintances, and American, English, and 
French fellow-travellers could easily have his conversation and 
company on condition that they would converse on religious 
matters, or on the graver social and racial topics. It was not a 
little singular that, although suffering from weakness of the ner- 
vous system, he could talk abstruse philosophy by the hour with- 
out mental fatigue. Discussing such points as the different move- 
ments of nature and grace, the various theories of apprehending 
the existence of God, or how to bring about conviction in the 
minds of non-Catholics on the claims of the Church, he could tire 
the strong brain of a well man. It was the things below which 
tired him. He illustrated his conversation by gleams of light re- 
flected from his past experience. When circumstances condemn 
such generous souls as Father Hecker to inactivity, a favorite sol- 
ace is picking up fragments of work or recalling high ideas from 
the crowded memory of their former zeal, often with much profit 
to those who listen. And this was no idle-minded or boastful 
trait in him, as we see from the following: 

"Be assured I shall not follow my own will if I can help it. 
Every dictate of prudence and wisdom will be my guide. Until 
the clouds clear away I shall be quiet, waiting, watching and 
praying, seeking for light wherever there is a reasonable prospect 
of obtaining it. In the meanwhile my time is not misspent. 
The journeys which I have made, the persons whom I have met 
on my way — these and a thousand other things incident to my 
present way of life are the best of educators for improving one's 
mind, for correcting one's judgments, and for giving greater 
breadth to one's thoughts. ... It seems to me that I al- 
most see visibly and feel palpably the blessing of divine grace 
on the work of the community, in its harmony, in the success of 
its missions, in the special graces to its members, in their cheer- 
fulness and zeal : all this, too, in my absence. My absence, 
therefore, cannot be displeasing to the Divine Will ; rather these 
things seem to indicate the contrary, and they awake in my soul 
an inexpressible consolation." 

But he said to one of his brethren afterwards : " Oh, father ! 



The Long Illness. 387 



I was sad all the time that I was in Europe. Why so ? 
Well, it was because I was away from home, away from my 
work, away from my companions. And that was why I attached 
myself while there to those persons who felt as we did, and 
were of like views, and participated in our aims and purposes." 

How he felt about his chances of recovery is shown by the 
following : 

** I have nothing further to say about my health than that I 
have none. Were I twelve hours, or six, in my former state of 
health, my conscience would %\w^ me no moment of peace in my 
present position. It would worry me and set me to work. As 
it is I am tranquil, at peace, and doing nothing except willingly 
bearing feebleness and inertia." 

From Paris, June 2, 1874, he writes to George and Josephine 
Hecker of a visit to Cardinal Deschamps in Brussels, where he 
met his old director, Father de Buggenoms. He expressed him- 
self fully to them about the state of religion in Europe, and, al- 
though both were his admirers and warm friends, it was only on 
the third day that he made himself fully understood, and dis- 
abused their minds of reserves and suspicions. But before leav- 
ing " a complete understanding, warm sympathy, and entire ap- 
proval " was the result. In one of the earlier chapters of this 
Life we have adverted to Father Hecker's difficulty in making 
himself understood. On this occasion he suffered much pain, for 
which, he says, the joy of the final agreement amply repaid him. 

He formed an intimate friendship with the Abbe Xavier Du- 
fresne, a devout and enlightened priest of Geneva, and with his 
father, Doctor Dufresne, well known as the mainstay of all the 
works of charity and religion in that city. The Abbe Dufresne 
became much attached to Father Hecker. "- The Almighty 
knows," he wrote to him, " how ardently I wish to see you 
again, for no one can feel more than I the want of your conver- 
sation, it was so greatly to my improvement." We have received 
from the Abbe Dufresne a memorial of Father Hecker, which is 
valuable as independent contemporary testimony. It is so appre- 
ciative and so instructive that we shall give the greater part of 
it as an appendix, together with two letters from Cardinal New- 
man written after Father Hecker's death. 

The following is from a letter from Mrs. Craven, written early 
in 1875 : 



388 The Life of Father Hecker. 

'* That we have thought of you very often I need not tell 
you, nor yet that we have thought and talked of and pondered 
over the many and the great subjects which have been dis- 
cussed during this week of delightful repose and solitude 
(though certainly not of silence). Let me, for one, tell you that 
many words of yours will be deeply and gratefully and usefully 
remembered, and that I feel as if all you explained to us in 
particular concerning the inward life which alone gives meaning 
and usefulness to outward signs and symbols (let them be ever 
so sacred), and the ways and means of quickening that inward 
life, all come home to me as a clear expression of my own 
thoughts by one who had read them better than myself." 

Such was a devout and intellectual Frenchwoman's way of 
describing an influence similarly felt by men and women of all 
classes, and of the most diverse schools of thought, whom 
Father Hecker met in Europe. 

This was written on hearing news of the community : 

"• It is consoling to see all these good works progressing [in 
the Paulist community]. To me they sound more like an echo 
of my past than the actual present. Before going up the Nile 
I used to say to some of my friends, that I once knew a man 
whose name was Hecker, but had lost his acquaintance, and I 
was going up the Nile to find him. Perhaps I would overtake 
him at Wady-Halfa in Nubia ! But I didn't. Sometimes I 
think the search is in vain, and that I shall have to resign my- 
self to his loss and begin a new life. Tuesday of this week my 
intention is to go to Milan and stop some days. I find friends 
in almost every city. Friday last I dined with the Archbishop 
of Turin, and have made the acquaintance of one or two priests 
here. Occasionally I visit museums, picture galleries, etc. ; and 
thus time is outwardly passing by, until it pleases God to shed 
more light on my soul, and to impart more strength to my 
body, and make clear my path." 

Here are his impressions of Rome after its occupation by 
the Italians, together with an account of an audience with the 
Holy Father : 

" Rome is indeed changed, not so much outwardly, ma- 
terially, as in spiritual atmosphere. It has lost its Christian 
exorcism and returned to its former pagan condition. The 
modern spirit, too, has entered it with activity in the material 



The Long Illness. 389 



order. The old order, I fear, is never to return; that is to say, 
as it was ; if it returns at all it will be on another basis. The 
last citadel has given way to the invasion of modern activity 
and push. Who would have dreamed of this twenty years ago ? 
The charm of Rome is gone, even to non-Catholics, for they 
felt raised above themselves into a more congenial and spiritual 
atmosphere while here, and their souls enjoyed it, though their 
intellectual prejudices were opposed to the principles. The 
charm they were conscious of forced them back again to Rome 
in spite of themselves. But that charm has in a great measure 
gone." 

*' The other evening I had a very pleasant private audience 
with the Holy Father. Among other matters I showed him 
The Young Catholic, which pleased him very much. He was 
struck with the size of the jackass in the picture of Ober- 
Ammergau, and asked if they grew so large in that country. I 
replied : * Holy Father, asses nowadays grow large everywhere.' 
He laughed heartily and said, ' Bene t7'ovato.' " 

Father Hecker was in Rome when, in March, 1875, his old 
friend and patron and first spiritual adviser. Archbishop McClos- 
key, was made Cardinal. He was much rejoiced, and sent the 
Cardinal a rich silk cassock, and gave a public banquet to Mon- 
signor Roncetti and Doctor Ubaldi, who were to carry the in- 
signia of the cardinalate to New York. We are indebted to 
the kindness of Archbishop Corrigan for a copy of Father 
Hecker's letter of congratulation, the principal parts of which 
we subjoin. The view of public policy concerning the College 
of Cardinals expressed in this letter was developed at length in 
an article published by Father Hecker in The Catholic World 
when Cardinal Gibbons was appointed ; it will also be found 
in his latest volume, The Church and the Age : 

" The choice of the Supreme Pontiff in making you the first 
Cardinal of the hierarchy of the United States gives great satis- 
faction here to all your friends. For as honors and dignities in 
the Church proceed by way of distinguished merit and abilities, 
the qualities which they have always recognized and esteemed 
in you are by the event made known to the whole world. 

" This elevation to the cardinalate of an American prelate is 
a cheering sign that the dignities of the Church are open to 



390 The Life of Father Hecker. 

men of merit of all nations, and it is to be hoped that every 
nation will be represented in the College of Cardinals in pro- 
portion to its importance, and in that way the Holy See will 
represent by its advisers the entire world, and render its uni- 
versality more complete. The Church will be a gainer, and the 
world too ; and I have no doubt that your appointment to this 
office in the Church will be, from this point of view, popular 
with the American people." 

His continued and insensibly increasing weakness of body, 
as well as what seemed an unconquerable mental^ aversion to 
attempting even partially to resume his former career in the 
United States, seemed to settle negatively the question of his 
early return home. He began to think that it was God's will that 
he should permanently transfer his influence to the Old World. 
His mind was full of the religious problems of Europe, and the 
notion of Paulists for Europe, differing in details from Ameri- 
can Paulists but identical in spirit, soon occupied his thoughts. 
The reader will remember Father Hecker's conviction, expressed 
when leaving Rome after the Vatican Council, that the condi- 
tion of things in the Old World invited the apostolate of a free 
community of wholly sanctified men, such as he would have the 
Paulists to be. He now became persuaded, or almost so, that 
God meant his illness to be the means of practically inaugurat- 
ing such a movement. By it the dim outlines of men's yearn- 
ings for a religious awakening, which he everywhere met with 
among the European nations, could be brought out distinctly 
and realized by an adaptation of the essentials of community 
life to changed European conditions. He thought he could 
select the leading spirits for the work, and, without overtaxing 
his strength, teach them the principles and inspire them with 
the spirit necessary to success. All this is brought forward in 
his letters and discussed. But it was not to be in his time. 

The following entries in his journal, made during the Lent of 
1875, have this European, or rather universal, apostolate in view: 

" The Holy Spirit is preparing the Church for an increased 
infusion of Himself in the hearts of the faithful. This increased 
action of the Holy Spirit will renew the whole face of the 
earth, in religion and in society. Souls will be inspired by Him 
to assist in bringing about this end. 



The Long Illness. 391 



" The question is how shall such souls co-operate with Him 
in preparation for this extraordinary outpouring of divine grace ? 
The law of all extensive and effectual work is that of associa- 
tion. The inspiration and desire and strength to co-operate and 
associate in facilitating this preparation for the Holy Spirit must 
come to each soul from the Holy Spirit Himself. 

" What will be the nature of this association and the special 
character of its work ? The end to be had in view will be to 
set on foot a means of co-operation with the Church in the con- 
quest of the whole world to Christ, the renewal of the Apostolic 
spirit and life. For unity, activity, and choice of means reliance 
should be had upon the bond of charity in the Holy Spirit and 
upon His inspirations. 

" The central truth to actuate the members should be the 
Kingdom of Heaven within the soul, which should be made the 
burden ,of all sermons, explaining how it is to be gained now. 

" Men will be called for who have that universal synthesis of 
truth which will solve the problems, eliminate the antagonisms, 
and meet the great needs of the age ; men who will defend and 
uphold the Church against the attacks which threaten her 
destruction, with weapons suitable to the times ; men who will 
turn all the genuine aspirations of the age, in science, in social 
ism, in politics, in spiritism, in religion, which are now perverted 
against the Church, into means of her defence and universal 
triumph. 

" If it be asked, therefore, in what way the co-operation with 
the new phase of the Church in the increase of intensity and 
expansion of her divine life in the souls of men is to be insti- 
tuted, the answer is as follows : By a movement . . . spring- 
ing from the synthesis of the most exalted faith with all the 
good and true in the elements now placed in antagonism to the 
Church, thus eliminating antagonisms and vacating contro- 
versies. . . ." 

"Can a certain number of souls be found who are actuated 
by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, the genius of grace, to form 
an associative effort in the special work of the present time ? 
If there be such a work, and an associative effort be necessary, 
will not the Holy Spirit produce in souls, certain ones at least, 
such a vocation ? Is not the bond of unity in the Holy Spirit 
which will unite such souls all that is needed in the present 
state of things to do this work .^ " 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

"THE EXPOSITION OF THE CHURCH." 

WHILE in Europe God opened Father Hecker's soul to the 
cries of the nations. He was profoundly interested in the 
state of religion there, and the persecutions suffered by Catholics 
in Germany, in Switzerland, and in Italy during his stay, while it 
aroused his sympathies, increased his desire to find a remedy, and 
a fundamental one, for the evils from which the Church suffered. 
The peoples of the Old World, with their differing tendencies, 
were incessantly disputing in his mind. They were always dis- 
playing over against each other their diverse traits of race and 
tradition, at the same time that they were actually passing be- 
fore his eyes in his constant journeyings in search of health. 

What amazed and no less irritated Father Hecker was the 
political apathy of Catholics. All the active spirits seemed to 
hate religion. A small minority of anti-Christians was allowed 
entire control of Italy and France, and exhibited in the govern- 
ment of those foremost Catholic commonwealths a pagan ferocity 
against everything sacred ; and this was met by " timid listless- 
ness " on the part of the Catholic majority. These latter evad- 
ed the accusation of criminal cowardice by an extravagant dis- 
play of devotional religion. To account for this anomaly and to 
offer a remedy for it. Father Hecker in the winter of 1875 pub- 
lished a pamphlet of some fifty pages, entitled An Exposition of 
the Church in View of Recent Difficulties and Co?itroversies and 
the Present Needs of the Age. It is a brief outline of his views, 
held more or less distinctly since his case in Rome in 1857-8, 
but fully unfolded in his mind at the Vatican Council and ma- 
tured during his present sojourn in Europe ; the reader has 
already been given a summary of them in a letter treating of 
the providential meaning of the Vatican decrees. 

What is the matter with Catholics, that they allow their 
national life, in education, in art, in literature, in general poli- 
tics, to be paganized by petty cliques of unbelievers? How ac- 
count for this weakness of character in Catholics? The answer 
is that the devotional and ascetical type on which they are 
formed is one calculated to repress individual activity, a quality 
essential to political success in our day. Energy in the world of 
modern politics is not the product of the devotional spirit domi- 



" The Exposition of the Church^ 395 

nant on the continent of Europe. That spirit in its time saved 
the Church, for it fostered submission when the temptation was 
to revolt. 

'* The exaggeration," says the Exposition, " of personal 
authority on the part of Protestants brought about in the 
Church its greater restraint, in order that her divine authority 
might have its legitimate exercise and exert its salutary influence. 
The errors and evils of the times [the Reformation era] sprang 
from an unbridled personal independence, which could only be 
counteracted by habits of increased personal dependence. Con- 
traria contrariis ciirantur. The defence of the Church and the 
salvation of the soul were [under these circumstances] ordinarily 
secured at the expense, necessarily, of those virtues which pro- 
perly go to make up the strength of Christian manhood. The 
gain was the m?>.intenance and victory of divine truth, and the 
salvation of the soul. The loss was a certain falling off in 
energy, resulting in decreased action in the natural order. The 
former was a permanent and inestimable gain. The latter was a 
temporary and not irreparable loss." 

The passive virtues, fostered under an overruling Providence 
for the defence of threatened external authority in religion, and 
producing admirable effects of uniformity, discipline, and obedi- 
ence, served well in the politics of the Reformation and post- 
Reformation eras, when nearly all governments were absolute 
monarchies ; but the present governments are republics or con- 
stitutional monarchies, and are supposed to be ruled by the 
citizens themselves. This demands individual initiative, active 
personal exertion and direct interference in public affairs. Vigi- 
lant and courageous voters rule the nations. Therefore, without 
injury to entire obedience, the active virtues in both the natural 
and supernatural orders must be mainly cultivated ; in the first 
order everything that makes for self-reliance, and in the second 
the interior guidance of the Holy Spirit in the individual soul. 
This, the Exposition maintains, is the way out of present dififi- 
culties. That it is the Providential way out, is shown by most 
striking evidence : the diversion of the anti-Catholic forces from 
the attack against authority to one against the most elementary 
principles of religion — God, conscience, and immortality; the 
drift of Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic minds of a religious cast 



394 1^^^^ Life of Father Hecker. 

towards the Church, caUing for spiritual attractions in accord- 
ance with the independence of character pecuHar to those 
races ; the hopeless failure of the post-Reformation methods to 
meet the needs of the hour ; and especially the Vatican decrees, 
which have set at rest all controversy on authority among Cath- 
olics. The needs of the times, therefore, call for virtues among 
Catholics which shall display the personal force of Catholic life 
no less than that which is organic. These must all centre 
around the cultivation of the Holy Spirit in the individual soul. 

" The light the age requires for its renewal," says the Exposi- 
tion, " can only come from the same source. The renewal of the 
age depends on the renewal of religion. The renewal of religion 
depends upon the greater effusion of the creative and renewing 
power of the Holy Spirit. The greater effusion of the Holy 
Spirit depends on the giving of increased attention to His move- 
ments and inspirations in the soul. The radical and adequate 
remedy for all the evils of our age, and the source of all true 
progress, consist in increased attention and fidelity to the action 
of the Holy Spirit in the soul. 'Thou shalt send forth Thy 
Spirit and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew the 
face of the earth.' " 

The following extract gives the synthesis of the twofold 
action of the Holy Spirit, showing how external authority and 
obedience to it are amply secured by the interior virtues : 

" The Holy Spirit in the external authority of the Church 
acts as the infallible interpreter and criterion of divine revelation. 
The Holy Spirit in the soul acts as the Divine Life-giver and 
Sanctifier. It is of the highest importance that these two dis- 
tinct offices of the Holy Spirit should not be confounded. The 
supposition that there can be any opposition, or contradiction, 
between the action of the Holy Spirit in the supreme decisions 
of the authority of the Church, and the inspirations of the Holy 
Spirit in the soul, can never enter the mind of an enlightened 
and sincere Christian. The Holy Spirit, which through the au- 
thority of the Church teaches divine truth, is the same Spirit 
which prompts the soul to receive the divine truths which He 
teaches. The measure of our love for the Holy Spirit is the 
measure of our obedience to the authority of the Church. . . . 
There is one Spirit, which acts in two different offices concur- 



" The Exposition of the Church''' 395 

ring to the same end, the regeneration and sanctification of the 
soul. 

" In case of obscurity or doubt concerning what is the 
divinely revealed truth, or whether what prompts the soul is or 
is not an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recourse must be had 
to the Divine Teacher or criterion, the authority of the Church. 
For it must be borne in mind that to the Church, as repre- 
sented in the first instance by St. Peter, and subsequently by 
his successors, was made the promise of her Divine Founder, 
that ' the gates of hell should never prevail against her.' No such 
promise was ever made by Christ to each individual believer. 
' The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of Truth.' 
The test, therefore, of a truly enlightened and sincere Christian 
will be, in case of uncertainty, the promptitude of his obedience 
to the voice of the Church. 

" From the above plain truths the following practical rule of 
conduct may be drawn: The Holy Spirit is the immediate 
guide of the soul in the way of salvation and sanctification ; and 
the criterion, or test, that the soul is guided by the Holy Spirit, 
is its ready obedience to the authority of the Church. This rule 
removes all danger whatever, and with it the soul can walk, run, 
or fly, if it chooses, in the greatest safety and with perfect lib- 
erty, in the ways of sanctity." 

" The practical aim of all true religion is to bring each indi- 
vidual soul under the immediate guidance of the Divine Spirit. 
The Divine Spirit communicates Himself to the soul by means 
of the sacraments of the Church. The Divine Spirit acts as the 
interpreter and criterion of revealed truth by the authority of 
the Church. The Divine Spirit acts as the principle of regener- 
ation and sanctification in each Christian soul. 

*' Such an exposition of Christianity, the union of the in- 
ternal with the external notes of credibility, is calculated to 
produce a more enlightened and intense conviction of its divine 
truth in the faithful, to stimulate them to a more energetic per- 
sonal action ; and, what is more, it would open the door to 
many straying but not altogether lost children, for their return 
to the fold of the Church. The increased action of the Holy 
Spirit, with a more vigorous co-operation on the part of the 
faithful, which is in process of realization, will elevate the human 
personality to an intensity of force and grandeur productive of 
a new era in the Church and to society; an era difficult for the 



396 The Life of Father Hecker. 



imagination to grasp, and still more difficult to describe in 
words, unless we have recourse to the prophetic language of the 
inspired Scriptures." 

It is thus made plain that Father Hecker does not deny the 
harmony between the devotional spirit and practices prevalent in 
different ages of the Church ; but he calls attention to the fact 
that the dominant note of one age is not always the same as 
that in another. And in using the words criterion and test, de- 
scriptive of the Church, he would convey their full meaning: 
not merely a plumb-line for the rising wall but divine accuracy 
itself made external. His outer criterion is to ^the inner life 
what articulate speech is to the human voice. 

" The Exposition is nothing else," he writes home, " than a 
general outline of a movement from without to within ; as in 
the sixteenth century the movement was one from within to 
without. This was occasioned by the nature of the attack of 
Protestantism. The Church having with increased [external] 
agencies protected what was assaulted, can return to her normal 
course with increased action. I give an indication of the nature 
of this movement : 

"An increased action of the Holy Spirit in the soul in con- 
sequence of this greater attention directed to the interior life, 
and a more perfect explanation of the same. An exposition of 
the relation of the external to the internal in the Church. The 
action of the Holy Spirit in the soul and His gifts are the reme- 
dies for the evils of our times. The development of the intelli- 
gible side of the mysteries of faith, and the intrinsic reasons of 
the truths of divine revelation. Such a movement will open the 
door for the return of the Saxon races. The Latin-Celts in rela- 
tion to the development of the hierarchy, discipline, worship, and 
aesthetics of the Church are considered. Causes of Protestantism 
— antagonism and jealousy of races; present persecutions. The 
Saxon idea of the Catholic Church. Reason for it — they see only 
the outward and human side of the Church. Return of the 
Saxons in consequence of the new phase of development — the 
display of the inward and the divine to their intelligence. The 
transition of races ; in the future the Saxon will supernaturalize 
the natural, the Latin-Celts will naturalize the supernatural. The 
plan and suggestions given are the way to escape the extermina- 



" The Exposition of the Church'' 397 

tion of Christianity by the Saxons, and the denial of Christianity 
by the apostasy of the Latins. The union of these races in 
the Church, with their civiHzation and force, is the means of 
spreading Christianity rapidly over the whole world. 

" In the Exposition I follow simply the footsteps of the 
Church as indicated in her history, in the Encyclicals of Pius 
IX., and the Vatican Council. The Church is God acting 
directly on the human race, guiding it to its true destiny, the 
road of all true progress." 

The Exposition, as already said, had been talked to all 
comers by Father Hecker, and in various parts of Europe, but 
was put into shape in the autumn of 1874, while he was in the 
north of Italy. He took it to Rome and offered it to the Pro- 
paganda Press. No fault was found with it ; many high digni- 
taries, some of them members of the Congregation of the Sacred 
Palace, which has charge of the censorship, heartily approved of 
it and would have it published at once ; but at the last moment 
this was decided by the authorities to be inexpedient. It was 
then sent to London, and Pickering brought it out anonymously, 
and it was at once put into French by Mrs. Craven. It was 
published as a leader in The Catholic World about the same 
time, and in 1887 formed the first chapter of The Church and 
the Age, a compilation of Father Hecker's more important 
later essays. 

The Exposition contributes to the solution of the race prob- 
lem as it affects religion. A glance at Europe shows the radical 
difference which is symbolized by the terms Transalpine and Cis- 
alpine, Latin and Teutonic. The one group of races most readi- 
ly clings to the interior virtues of religion, the other to external 
institutions. The problem is how to reconcile them, how to 
bring both into unity. Father Hecker believed that the Latin 
race had crowned its work in the Vatican Council and done it 
gloriously, and that the time had arrived to invite the Teutonic 
race to develop its force in the interior life of the Church. 
There are passages in the following letter which indicate the 
weight of this racial problem to him, as well as the supernatural 
earnestness which he brought to the study of it. It serves to 
explain a remark he once made : '' I wrote the Exposition while 
I was having very many lights about the Holy Ghost — I 
couldn't help but write it." 



398 The Life of Father Hecker. 

"Paris, June 11, 1874. 

"Dear George and Josephine: There is not much for 
me to add to my letter of the third of this month. My prepa- 
rations are made to go to Mayence during the CathoHc Assem- 
bly, which commences on the fifteenth and lasts three days. 
There I shall meet several persons whom I am interested in and 
wish to see. Besides, ecclesiastical affairs in the German Empire 
are in a very critical state, and this must add to the interest of 
the Assembly. Meeting, as I frequently do, the leading minds 
of Europe, enables me to compare views, appreciate difficulties, 
and hear objections. 

" It is just as difficult to get the Celtic [and Latin] mind to 
conceive and appreciate the internal notes of the Church, and 
the character of her divine interior life, as it is to get the Teu- 
tonic mind to conceive and appreciate the divine external con- 
stitution of the Church, the importance, and essential importance, 
of her authority, discipline, and liturgy. But the weakness of 
the former, and the persecutions now permitted by Divine 
Providence to be visited on the latter, are teaching them both 
the lessons they need to learn. To complete the development 
of the truth, of the Church, each needs the other ; and Divine 
Providence is shaping things so that in spite of all obstacles, 
natural and induced, a synthesis of them both is forming in the 
bosom of the Church. The work is slow but certain, concealed 
from ordinary observation because divine ; but exceedingly beau- 
tiful. Underneath all the persecutions, the oppression, the false 
action, the whole outwardly critical condition of the Church and 
society, there is an overpowering, counteracting, divine current, 
leading to an all-embracing, most complete, and triumphant 
unity in the Church. To see how all things — wicked men as 
well as the good, for God reigns over all — contribute to this end 
and are made to serve it, gives peace to the mind, repose to the 
soul, and excites admiration and adora,tion of the Divine action 
in the world. 

"To have a conception of this all-embracing and direct action 
of God in the affairs of this world, and by the light of faith to 
see that the Church is the dwelling place of His holiness, majes- 
ty, mercy, and power, and is the medium of this action, at first 
stupefies, overwhelms, and, as it were, reduces the soul to nothing. 
By degrees and imperceptibly it is raised from its nothingness; 



The Exposition of the Church^ 399 



timidly the soul opens its eyes and ventures to cast a glance, 
and then to contemplate the Divinity which everywhere sur- 
rounds it, as air and light do our bodies. The contemplation of 
the Divine action becomes its only occupation and it is an irre 
sistible one. All the life, mind, and strength of the soul is in- 
voluntarily absorbed in this direction, leaving the body scarcely 
sufficient strength to continue its ordinary functions. 

'* How far will the body regain its former strength ? What 
will be the relation of the soul with its former occupations ? 
Will this additional light require other conditions? Was this 
light given for another and wider field of labor? These and 
many other questions must arise in the soul, which in due season 
will be answered. Its present duty is to practise conformity to 
God's will, patience, detachment, discretion, and confidence." 

There is hardly any part of this Life which does not assist 
one in understanding the Exposition, especially the chapters on 
the idea of a religious community and that giving his spiritual 
doctrine. Many leading spirits hailed it with joy, among them 
Margotti, the editor of the Unita Cattolica of Turin, and Cardi- 
nal Deschamps. The former made Father Hecker's acquaintance 
during a visit to Turin, and became a warm admirer of him and 
his views.' He compelled him to leave the hotel and lodge at 
his house during his stay in that city. When the Exposition 
came out he gave it two long and highly commendatory notices 
in his journal, at the time the most influential Catholic one in 
Italy, and published three chapters entire. 

We have a copy of the Exposition annotated, at Father Heck- 
er's request, by the late distinguished Jesuit, Father H. RamJere. 
These comments are valuable and suggestive. While modifying 
Father Hecker's judgment as to the causes of the deterioration 
of Catholic manliness. Father Ramiere recognizes the fact. The 
remedies receive his emphatic approval, as also the author's ex- 
planation of the synthesis of the inner and outer action of the 
Holy Ghost in the Church. 

When The Church and tlie Age appeared the English Jesuit 
magazine, The MontJi, in its issue of July, 1888, gave the book a 
very full and favorable review, endorsing all the principles of the 
Exposition. After saying that the Vatican decrees mark a spe- 
cial epoch in the evolution of Christianity, and close a period of 
attack — one of the sharpest which the Church has ever sustained 
— upon her external authority, the reviewer continues: 



400 TJic Life of Father Hecker, 

" It completed the Church's defence, and left her free to con- 
tinue unimpeded her normal course of internal development. 
. . . The author displays remarkable breadth of thought, and 
the book contains many passages which are not only eloquent as 
a defence of Catholicity, but which cannot fail to impart instruc- 
tion to the reflecting reader. We think it deserving of a wide 
circulation among both clergy and laity, and it is with a desire 
to further such a result that we propose to explain at some 
length the views which we have already touched upon. . . . 
We want a Catholic individualism, which necessarily requires a 
clear and recognized authority as a safeguard against the errors 
to which individualism exposes itself, but which, on the other 
hand, can never be begotten by the mere principle of authority 
as such." 

The Literarischer Handweiser, a German Catholic critical re- 
view, published in Miinster, having a high character and wide 
circulation, gave an equally favorable estimate of Father Heck- 
er's views in a notice of The Church and the Age. 

The following extracts from letters will close our considera- 
tion of the Exposition, which we have thought worthy of so 
careful and full a study because it is the remedial application of 
Father Hecker's spiritual doctrines to the evils of European 
Catholicity : 

" It is consoling to see men of different opinions and of op- 
posite parties in the Church regarding my pamphlet as the pro- 
gramme of a common ground on which they can meet and 
agree." 

*' I have had several interviews with Cardinal Deschamps. He 
invited me to spend the evenings with him, as we are old and 
very close friends. On all points, main points, our views are 
one. And it is singular how the same precise ideas and views 
have presented themselves at the same time to the minds of us 
both. In matters which regard my personal direction, I have 
consulted him several times, and fully. He has always taken a 
special interest in my welfare in every sense. His counsel has 
given me great relief, increased tranquillity, and will be of great 
service. He remains here eight or ten days longer, and I will 
see him as often during that period as I can." 

A distinguished Swiss orator and prelate, since made cardinal, 
told Father Hecker of a devout priest who gave a large number 
of retreats to the clergy: '"When I saw him last,* said Monsig- 



" The Exposition of the Church''' 401 

nor to me, *he said that since we had met he had given 

retreats to seven hundred or eight hundred priests, and that he 
had read to them the Exposition of the Church which I gave 
him at my last interview with him.' " 

" It will take time to understand the ideas in the Exposi- 
tion. It will take still longer time to see their bearing, appli- 
cation, and results. Few at first will seize their import ; by de- 
grees they will take in a wider circle. The difficulties of the 
times, the anguish of many souls in the midst of the present 
persecutions, etc., will draw attention to any project or plan or 
system that offers a better future." 




CHAPTER XXXIV. 

IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 

" T LOOK back," wrote Father Hecker in the summer of 1875, 
^ '* on these three years as one continuous and dreadful in- 
terior struggle." This shows that the shadows were too deep and 
broad for the intervals of peace, which we know from his letters 
he had now and then enjoyed, to banish the impression of con- 
stant gloom. And Father Hecker's readiness to return home upon 
positive request will be the better appreciated when we remem- 
ber how very painful to him was the very thought of his past 
occupations. Nor was his bodily health in a hopeful condition. 
While at Ragatz in the month of June, 1875, he met a distin- 
guished physician from Paris, an excellent Catholic, whom he 
had been strongly advised to consult before. Glad of the chance, 
fie submitted to a thorough examination, and received from him 
a written statement to the effect that it would be dangerous to 
take up any steady occupation, and that he should be entirely 
free from care for at least a year ; otherwise a final break-down 
was to be expected. This seemed effectually to bar all thoughts 
of return. And such was his own settled conviction, as is 
shown by the following, written about the end of June : 

"Where could I find repose? Not in the community; not at 
my brother's : nowhere else to go. Then, again, I would be 
constantly required to give opinions and counsel in the affairs 
of the community, which would require an application beyond 
my strength. There is no other way than for me to remain con- 
tented in Europe, with my feebleness and obscurity, in the 
hands of God." 

But on July 29 he received a letter which compelled him to 
decide between tranquillity of spirit and bodily comfort — perhaps 
life itself — on the one hand, and the call of his brethren on the 
other. He decided without a moment's hesitation and with the 
utmost equanimity. We quote from a letter to George Hecker: 

"Three days ago a letter from Father Hewit reached me 
urging my immediate return in such strong language and with 

such considerations that I wrote a reply expressing my readiness 

402 



In the Shadow of Death. 403 

to return at once. On re-reading the letter I found its tone so 
urgent that I sent a telegram to the above effect. ... In 
God's hands are my being, my soul, and all my faculties, to do 
with them and direct them as He pleases. To return to the 
United States and there arrange things to His pleasure, or to 
leave me here. I am indifferent, quiet, entirely ready either not 
to act or to act." 

And so in October, 1875, Father Hecker was again in New 
York. He begged the Fathers to allow him to stay with his 
brother for the present, "■ for my nerves could not stand the 
noise, the routine, and the excitement of the house in Fifty- 
ninth Street." And when he did return to the convent to live, 
which was four years afterwards, he was quite sure that his end 
was at hand, though it did not come till nine years later. 

During all the thirteen years between Father Hecker's return 
to America and his death, his daily order of life was pretty 
much the same as he described it in one of his letters from 
Europe, already given to the reader. He did not resort any 
longer to change of place or climate as a means of recovery; he 
had tried that long enough. His physician, the one who served 
the community, assisted him constantly with advice and reme- 
dies, and once or twice he tried a sanitarium ; he was apt to try 
anything suggested, being credulous about such matters. But his 
strength of body slowly faded away. He was more disturbed 
than surprised at this, and fought for life every inch of the way. 

" If I were a Celt," he once said with a smile, " I should more 
readily resign myself to die, but I am of a race that clings fast to 
the earth." His persistent struggle was sometimes calm, but was 
generally sharpened by a horrible dread of death, which fastened 
on his soul like a vampire, and gave a stern aspect to his self- 
defence. His patience in suffering was most admirable, though 
seldom clothed in the usual formalities. " Perhaps, after all," he 
would sometimes say, *' God will give me back my health, for I 
have a work to do." 

Though anything but an ill-tempered man. Father Hecker 
was yet by nature ardent and irascible and quickly provoked by 
opposition, but God gave him such a horror of dissension that 
he would not quarrel, though it was often plain that his peace- 
ful words cost him a hard struggle. Occasionally he lost his 
temper for a little while, and this was when compelled to attend 



404 The Life of Father Hecker, 

to business under stress of great bodily or mental pain. We do 
not think that he was ever known to attempt to move men by 
anger, or even sternness. " If you ever tell any one about me," 
he said, *' say that I believed in praising men more than in con- 
demning them, and that I valued praise as a higher form of in- 
fluence than any kind of threatening or compulsion." Nor did 
he resort to the formalities of obedience to secure his end. 
" Why don't you put me under obedience to do this } " asked a 
father who did not exactly approve of a proposal Father 
Hecker had made to him. The answer was given with a good 
deal of heat : " I have never done such a thing in my life, and I 
am not going to begin now ! " Nor had he any use for bitter 
speech even in cold blood. " One thing," he said in a letter^ 
'* I will now correct ; a sneer — intentionally or consciously — is a 
thing that, so far as my memory serves, I am as innocent of as a 
little babe." Yet he could be sarcastic, as the following memo- 
randum shows : " Cardinal Cullen once said to me, after I had 
made a journey through Ireland, 'Well, Father Hecker, what do 
you think of Ireland ? ' I answered : ' Your Eminence, my thoughts 
about Ireland are such that I will get out of the country as soon 
as I can ; for if I expressed my sentiments I should soon be put 
into jail for Fenianism ! ' This was in 1867 while Fenianism was 
rampant. Of course he did not approve of it, but the sights he 
saw taught him its awful provocation. And once when unduly 
pressed with the dictum of an author whose range of power was 
not high enough to overcome Father Hecker's objections, he 
said : *' I am not content to live to be the echo of dead men's 
thoughts." But it was not by skill in the thrust and parry of 
argumentative fence that Father Hecker won his way in a dis- 
cussion, but by the hard drive of a great principle. The follow- 
ing memorandum describes the effect of this on an ordinary 
man : 

'' It is rather amusing when Father Hecker asks me some of 
his stunning questions on the deepest topics of the divine 
sciences. I look blank at him, I ask him to explain, I fish up 
some stale commonplace from the memory of my studies — and 
he then gives me his own original, his luminous answer." 

And both his choice of subjects in conversation and his natu- 
ral manner were according to his temperament, which was medi- 
tative. This gave his countenance when at rest a peaceful cast 
until within a few years of the end, when " death's pale flag '* 



In the Shadoiv of Death. 405 

cast upon it a shade of foreboding. We have a photograph of 
him taken when he was about forty-five and in average good 
health, showing a tranquil face, full of thought and with eyes 
cast down ; to the writer's mind it is the typical Isaac Hecker. 
But this expression changed in conversation, when not only his 
words but his gestures and his glances challenged a friendly but 
energetic conflict of opinion. 

If it be asked, how did Father Hecker recreate himself dur- 
ing those mournful years, the answer is that recreation in the 
sense of a pleasurable relaxation seemed contrary to his nature 
v/hether in sickness or in health. It was once said to him, 
" Easter week is always a lazy time." " No, it is not," he an- 
swered. "I never have known a time, not a moment, in my 
whole life, when I felt lazy or was in an idle mood." He found 
himself obliged, however, to get out of the house and take exer- 
cise, walking in the park leaning on the arm of one of the com- 
munity, or, if he was more than usually weak, being driven in 
his brother's carriage. There were occasions when to kill time 
was for him to kill care — to call his mind away from thoughts 
of death and of the judgment, the dread of which fell upon him 
like eternal doom. Then he would try to get some one to talk 
to, or to go with him and look at pictures and statues ; or he 
would work at mending old clocks, a pretty well mended collec- 
tion of which he kept in his room against such occasions. In 
the park he would often go and look at the beasts in the men- 
agerie, and he spoke of them affectionately. " They bring to 
my mind the power and beauty of God," he said. He came to 
meals with the community, at least to dinner, until five or six 
years before his death, when his appetite became so unreliable 
that he took what food he could, and when he could, in h s 
room. He also attended the community recreations after meals 
until a few years before the end; but it was often noticed that 
the process of humiliation he was undergoing caused him to 
creep away into a corner, sit awhile with a very dejected look, 
and then wearily go upstairs to his room. When he was urged 
not to do this, " I cannot help it to save my life," was all the 
answer he could give. He finally gave up the recreations almost 
entirely. 

But he hated laziness. "I am so weak," he once said, ** and 
my brain is so easily tired out that I am forced to read a great 
deal to recreate myself. That's why you see me reading so 



4o6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

much." The book in which he was at the moment seeking rec- 
reation was a ponderous work on metaphysics by a proHx 
Scotchman, treating in many dreary chapters of such amusing 
topics as the unity of the act of perception with the object per- 
ceived ! As may be supposed of such a man, whose illness for- 
bade action and whose interior trials made contemplation an agony, 
he chafed sometimes at his enforced inactivity, though he was 
never heard, as far as we can get evidence, openly to complain 
of it. 

Time and stagnation of bodily forces did not alter his pro- 
gressive ideas. 

" Is it not wiser," he said, '■'■ to give one's thought and energy 
to prepare the way for the future success and triumph of reli- 
gion than to labor to continue the present [state of things], which 
must be and is being supplanted ? Such an attitude may not be 
understood and may be misinterpreted, and be one of trial and 
suffering ; still it is the only one which, consistently with a sense 
of duty, can be taken and maintained." 

A bishop on his way to Rome once called on Father Hecker. 
" Tell the Holy Father," he said to him, '' that there are three 
things which will greatly advance religion : First, to place the 
whole Church in a missionary attitude — make the Propaganda 
the right arm of the Church. Second, choose the cardinals from 
the Catholics of all nations, so that they shall be a senate rep- 
resenting all Christendom. Third, make full use of modern ap- 
pliances and methods for tra^nsacting the business of the Holy 
See." Sometimes he discussed the activity of rhodern commerce 
as teaching religious men a lesson. He once said : 

" When Father Hecker is dead one thing may be laid to his 
credit: that he always protested that it is a shame and an out- 
rage that men of the world do more for money than religious 
men will do for the service of God." 

No glutton ever devoured a feast more eagerly than Father 
Hecker read a sermon, a lecture, or an editorial showing the 
trend of non-CathoHc thought. After his death his desk was 
found littered with innumerable clippings of the sort, many of 
them pencilled with underlinings and with notes. These fur- 



In the Shadow of Death. 407 

nished much of the matter of his conversation, and doubtless of 
his prayers. Once he wrote to a friend : 

" Nobody is necessary to God and to the accompHshment of 
his designs. Yet at times I wish that I had the virtue that 
some creatures have ; when cut into pieces each piece becomes 
a new complete individual of the same species. I should cut my- 
self into at least a dozen pieces to meet the demands made 
upon me. What a splendid thing it is to think of our Lord go- 
ing about doing wonders, eternal and infinite things, and afl the 
time seeming to be unoccupied. The truly simple soul reduces 
all occupations to one, and in that one accomplishes all." 

And his organizing faculty would busy itself in various 
schemes, which, if they could not cure his weak body, could re- 
lax with a fancied activity his tired soul. Thus in a letter he 
said : 

*' Why should we not form a league for the cause of our 
Lord, to whom we owe all? Unreserved devotion to His cause 
with patience, perseverance, humility, and sweetness, are weapons 
that no man or woman or thing can withstand. Our Lord has 
promised that if we believe in Him we shall do greater works 
than He did. Let us believe in Him, and clothe ourselves 
through faith in Him with His virtues, and who shall resist us? 

" The first of all successes is Christ's triumph in our souls. 
Everything that leads to this, humiliations, afflictions, calumnies, 
contempt, mortifications, all work for us a glory exceeding the 
imagination of man. To suffer for Christ's sake is the short-cut 
in the way of becoming Christ-like." 

The following anecdote of his missionary days shows Father 
Hecker's contempt for lazy devotion. Once, when upon a mis- 
sion, a young priest just returned home from Rome, where he had 
made his studies, expressed his desire to get back again to Italy 
as soon as possible, saying, " I find no time here to pray." Father 
Hecker felt indignant, for it did not seem to him that the young 
man was very much occupied. " Don't be such a baby," said he. 
" Look around and see how much work there is to be done 
here. Is it not better to make some return to God — here in 
your own country — for what He has done for you, rather than 
to be sucking your thumbs abroad ? What kind of piety do you 
call that?" 



4o8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

He took a personal interest in all the members of the com- 
munity, and this was greatly heightened if any one fell sick. We 
remember his excitement when it was announced that one of 
the Fathers, who had been sent to a hospital for a surgical 
operation, had grown worse and was in danger of death. He 
began to pace his room, to question sharply about doctors and 
nurses, and immediately ordered Masses to be said and special 
prayers by the community ; and this father he had seen very 
little •of and hardly knew from the others. "I cannot tell," he 
wrote to a friend at the time of Father Tillotson's illness, " I 
dare not express, how much I love him, what he is to me.'* 
Always tender-hearted, the nearer he came to the end and the 
more he suffered the more gentle were his feelings towards 
all, the more kindly grew his looks, but also the more sad 
and weary. He was always careful to express thanks for 
favors, small or great. The following is from a letter to a 
friend : 

" Your last note contained at the end a kind invitation. 
Don't be troubled ; I'm not coming ! Do you know that some- 
times I am tempted to think that I am necessary? Sometimes 
the thought has come to me that I might run away from home 
a week or so. Then I have driven the thought away as I 
would a temptation. But I wished to thank you none the less 
for your invitation, though I should never see you again. / 
have an uncontrollable horror of ingratitude'' 

During his long years of illness Father Hecker's reading con- 
tinued upon the lines he had ever followed, the Scriptures hold- 
ing, of course, the first place. Besides reading or having read to 
him certain parts adapted to the spiritual probation he was un- 
dergoing, such as Job, the Passion of our Lord, and chapters of 
the sapiential books, he also took the entire Scriptures in course, 
going slowly through them from cover to cover and insisting on 
every word being read, genealogies and all. He would some- 
times interrupt the reader to make comments and ask questions. 
The last words that he listened to at night were the words of 
Scripture, read to him after he had got into bed. He declared 
that they soothed him and settled his mind and calmed its dis- 
turbance, and this was easily seen by his looks and manner. 
Some who knew him well thought from his comments that God 



In the Shadow of Death. 409 

gave him infused knowledge of a rare order about the sense of 
Scripture. Once he said : 

" When you were reading Ezechiel last night, oh, you cannot 
understand what thoughts I had ! During the past six months I 
have learned how to understand him. I say within myself : ' O 
Ezechiel ! Ezechiel ! no one understands, no one understands 
you in this world, except one here and there.' " 

Next to Scripture came St. Thomas and St. John of the 
Cross, the one for dogmatic and philosophical, the other for 
devotional uses. It must have been soon after returning to 
America as a Redemptorist that he procured a copy of Alago- 
na's Compendium of St. Thomas, submitted it to Bishop Neu- 
mann, whose learning was in high repute, and obtained his assur- 
ance of its accuracy. That little book is a curiosity of 
underlining and various other forms of emphasizing. It was with 
him till death. From it he referred to the full works of St. 
Thomas for complete statements, but he loved to ponder the 
brief summary of the abridgment and work the principles out in 
his own way. St. John of the Cross and Lallemant, as already 
stated, were his hand-books of mysticism and ascetic principles. 
The former he caused to be read to him in regular course 
over and over again, enjoying every syllable with fresh relish. 
In later days the Life of Mary Ward, by Mary Catherine 
Chambers, and The Glories of Divine Grace^ by Scheeben, afford- 
ed him special pleasure. Books which told of the religious ten- 
dencies of minds outside the Church were sure to interest him. 
He studied them as Columbus inspected the drifting weeds and 
the wild birds encountered on his voyage of discovery. Those 
who served him as readers sometimes found this kind of litera- 
ture pretty dry, just as Columbus's crew doubtless found it idle 
work to fish up the floating weeds of the sea. The following 
sentences occur in a diary written while in Europe in 1875. It 
is a statement of his opinion of the objective points at which 
Catholic teachers and writers of our day should aim : 

" In dogmatic theology, when treating of the doctrine of the 
fall of man keep in view the value of human nature and the 
necessity of divine grace preceding every act of Christian life. 

" In moral theology, stimulate the sense of personal responsi- 
bility. 



41 o The Life of Father Hecker. 

" In ascetic theology, fidelity to the Holy Spirit. 
" In polemic theology, develop the intrinsic notes of the 
Church." 

As to novels, he fully appreciated their power over minds, but 
we believe that he did not read half a dozen in his whole life, 
and these he treated as he did graver works: he studied them. 
**To read is one thing, to study is another," says Cardinal Man- 
ning ; but all reading was study to Father Hecker. We remember 
one novel which he read, slowly and most carefully, underlining 
much of it and filling the margins of every page with notes. 
'' Why don't you read novels, as other people do ? " he was 
asked. " Because life is more novel than any fiction, for fiction is 
but an attempt to paint life," he answered. No printed matter 
of any kind, much less a book, ever could be a plaything to 
Isaac Hecker. He often made more of the sentences on a scrap 
of newspaper, and studied them far harder, than the writer of 
them himself had done. A man whose play and work are in 
such problems as, how God is known, how the Trinity subsists, 
what beatitude is, how God's being is mirrored in man's activity, 
has too real a life within him and about him to tarry long in 
fiction or in any of the by-roads of literature. Poetry, how- 
ever, in its higher forms, or with a strong ethical tendency, he 
was very fond of. Perhaps his favorite among the poets was 
Coventry Patmore. 

After returning to New York Father Hecker, besides super- 
vising the editorial work of The Catholic World, wrote an occa- 
sional article for its pages. The more important of these, twelve 
in number, with the Exposition as a leader, were published in a 
volume already mentioned, The Church and the Age. This book 
appeared in 1887, and contains his views of the religious problems 
in Europe and America, and also some controversial writings 
against orthodox Protestantism and Unitarianism. These are 
well-written, clean-cut, and aggressive pieces of polemical writ- 
ing, whether against the errors of Protestants or of infidels. The 
CJmrch and the Age is the best exhibit of the author's opinions 
and principles on topics of religious interest and those of race 
and epoch having a religious bearing. He has left a considerable 
amount of unpublished matter, notably some essays on how God 
is known, the reality of ideas, and the Trinity, together with 
much on spiritual subjects. Let us hope that these ai^d more of 



In the Shadow of Death. 411 

his unpublished writings will some day be given to the public. 
He always found difficulty in preparing matter for the press. 
Using a pencil and a rubber eraser, he often positively wore the 
paper through with writing, correcting, and writing again. He 
seemed scrupulous about such matters, and in these circum- 
stances he lacked the immediate expression of his thoughts which 
came to him so spontaneously in his letters and diaries, as well 
as in his public speaking. But he dictated readily, and with a 
result of reaching quickly the form of words he would finally be 
content with. By this means he prepared his articles on Doctor 
Brownson, which appeared in The Catholic World between April 
and November, 1887. 

His intercourse with the members of the community was 
naturally much interfered with by his illness. But he loved to 
listen to them speaking of their work, was greatly interested in 
the building and decorating of the new church, and when the 
missionaries came home was eager to hear them tell of their suc- 
cess. He would invariably suggest that we should study how to 
extend our preaching outside the regular missions, so as to take 
in non-Catholics. He was also alive to opportunities for stimu- 
lating others, in and out of the community, to do literary work. 
At Lake George, where he spent his summers with the community, 
he was able to have a familiar contact with us all, especially the 
students, whom he enlisted in working about the grounds or the 
house, helping as best he could. But after his illness began he 
ever showed a certain constraint of manner when the conversa- 
tion took a grave turn, a kind of shyness, which a judge of 
character might interpret as meaning, '' I am afraid you'll misun- 
derstand me ; I am afraid you'll think I am a visionary." 




CHAPTER XXXV. 

CONCLUSION. 

FATHER HECKER'S prayer during all these years was a 
state of what seemed almost uninterrupted contemplation of 
varied intensity. He attended the evening meditation of the com- 
munity as long as he had strength to do so, frequently giving a 
commentary on the points read out at the beginning, simple, 
direct, and fervent. He was exceedingly fond of assisting at 
High Mass on Sundays and feast days, and he had a small 
oratory built between the house and the new churchj-from which, 
by passing a few steps from his room, he could hear the music 
and see the function through a window opening into the sanc- 
tuary. This often overpowered him with emotion, which was 
sometimes so strong as to drive him back to his room and into 
bed. Once a week and on the more solemn festivals was as often 
as he could say Mass, or even hear it, on account of his ex- 
treme weakness in the mornings. For the last three or four 
years of his life to say Mass at all became a struggle which was 
as curious as it was distressing to witness. Those who had ofteri 
read of such things in the lives of the servants of God were 
nevertheless amazed at the sight of them in Father Hecker. 
The following is from a memorandum : 

'■^ Father Hecker : Do you know what it is to be in sponta- 
neous relations with God — where the Divine Object works upon the 
soul spontaneously? It is that which prevents me from saying 
Mass, because I make a fool of myself. At any point I am apt 
to be so influenced by God as to be utterly deprived of physical 
force, to sink down helpless. At my brother's house they expect 
it and get me a chair. A few moments on a chair, and I am 
ready to go on. Now, if I yield to this I know that I shall be 
thrown into a clean helpless state, and I have a practical work 
to do. Question : Does this effect come at receiving Commu- 
nion .'^ Answer: I don't know, as I have never yet received 
Communion out of Mass. But I am afraid of it. Any such 
thing is apt to throw me off, and I am afraid. Question : But 
suppose it to be God's will that you should say Mass notwith- 
standing this difificulty? Answer: Then let Him bring it about." 

At one time several months passed, months of very low 

412 



Conclusion. 413 



vitality in body and awful darkness of soul, during which he 
neither said Mass nor received Communion. The following 
memorandum describes how this period, perhaps the most pain- 
ful of his life, was ended : 

''Christinas, 1885. — For the first time since early summer 
Father Hecker undertook to say Mass : I assisted him, and a 
stormy time we had of it. It was at five in the morning and in 
the oratory. He wanted to have the door locked, but there was 
no key. ' Don't speak a word to me,' he said while he was 
dressing in his room. Arrived in the oratory, he sank down 
upon a bench as if some one had struck him ; he threw his 
birettum down on the floor, and began to weep and cry in a 
very mournful way and aloud. But he quickly recovered, and 
rested as if he were preparing to be hanged. I supported him 
over to the altar, and as he began the Jiidica he blubbered out 
the words like a school-boy being whipped. Most of the Mass 
he said out loud, hardly holding in his sobs anywhere except from 
the hanc igitur till near the Pater Noster. His calmest time was 
during that most solemn part, and at his Communion. Three or 
four times he was forced to sit down on a chair I had provided 
for him on the predella. At the Memento for the living he was 
deeply affected and patted the floor with his foot, sobbing aloud 
and acting like a child with an unendurable toothache. He was 
afraid of the Pater Noster and asked me to say it with him, 
which I did ; also various words and sentences in other parts of 
the Mass. I have heard him say that the Pater Noster is a 
prayer which breaks him down. After he was through he in- 
sisted on trying to say the Pope's prayers. We said the Hail 
Marys and the Hail, Holy Queen, together, and I recited the 
prayer for him. I had to take off his vestments the best I 
could while he sat, and when I got him down to his room and 
into bed, he was in a state of nearly complete unconsciousness. 
After saying my three Masses, I saw him again at about 8.30, 
found him up and dressed and very bright, and he has been 
particularly so all day." 

What follows is from a letter dated early in 1886, and seems 
to refer to the occasion above described. He speaks of himself 
in the third person : 

"And he [Father Hecker] was never so occupied as now. 



414 The Life of Father Hecke7\ 



although he is doing nothing and has been in that condition for 
months. Though he does hear Mass, he does not, because he 
cannot, say it — without showing what a big fool he is. However 
he has begun again to say it. If it had not been for human 
respect he would not have said it last Sunday; he was too fee- 
ble. God is killing him by slow fire, by inches. He dies 
terribly hard." 

If Father Hecker had had an unimpaired physical system 
when his interior trials came, he might have resisted the ner- 
vous depression which they caused, at least well enough to 
maintain an active part in his undertakings. Or if his bodily 
weakness, resulting from his early austerities, had been accom- 
panied with interior equanimity, he might have held up. A 
rickety ship can, with care and skill, get into port if the engine 
is sound, and so can a sound ship with a broken-down engine 
sail home, however slowly. But with both a rickety ship and a dis- 
abled engine the port should be near at hand or there is danger 
of shipwreck. That Father Hecker did not die long before he 
did, was due, apart from God's special designs, to the extraordi- 
nary skill and care of Doctor James Begen, who was also an 
attached friend. Mr. Anthony Ellis, one of his former penitents, 
served him in his sick-room out of pure love from 1879 until his 
death, which preceded Father Hecker's by about a year. He 
had a kind-hearted successor in Mr. Patrick McCann. 

Father Hecker's beloved brother George died on February 
14, 1888. He had been ailing for some time and Father Hecker 
went to see him frequently. " George and I," he once said, 
*' were united in a way no w^ords can describe. Our union was 
something extremely spiritual and divine." The following memo- 
randum tells how Father Hecker received the news : 

" George Hecker died about nine o'clock last night, and when 
I informed Father Hecker of it this morning he was deeply 
moved. ' Don't say a word to me ! ' he cried, ' not a word. 
Read something! Read something quick!' I stepped over to 
the table and took the Scriptures and began to read the thir- 
teenth chapter of St. John, read it through, and another chapter. 
By that time he calmed down. He only wept twice, except a 
few little sobs, and went out riding as usual this afternoon. He 
is profoundly moved. * I knew it,' he said this morning ; ' I saw 
it, I saw it last night — it seemed to me that I saw it. I came 



Conchision. 415 



near coming to your room at half-past ten, but concluded not 
to do so.' Another time to-day he said : * If God enables me to 
bear this I hope I shall be able to do my allotted work.' " 

He bore it well, but it added very much to a burden already 
too heavy. For some weeks afterwards he now and then 
moaned and wept for his brother, and this happened occasionally 
till summer came. Those who attended Father Hecker could 
not but be convinced, from what they saw and heard, that God 
allowed George to visit his brother more than once after his 
death, and these supernatural interviews were productive of 
mingled consolation of soul and pain of body to the survivor. 
George Hecker was worthy of his brother's love. He was a 
noble character, full of that sort of religion nowadays most 
needed. His piety flourished in the withering atmosphere of 
wealth and in the turmoil of commercial life. Industry, thrift, 
enterprise, quick perception of opportunities, determination, a 
keen sense of his rights and a bold hand to defend them, 
manly frankness, were conspicuous traits in him and made 
him a rich merchant. But all these qualities served him as 
well for high spiritual ends. He was essentially and domi- 
nantly a spiritual man, fond of prayer, regular in all reli- 
gious duties. He was as honest as the day, and all for con- 
science' sake and the love of God. His understanding was wide 
and clear, his heart tender, simple, and courageous. He loved 
his wife and children, he loved his brother Isaac, with an absorb- 
ing devotedness, and these loves were blended and mingled into 
one with the love of God. His charities are known to the 
reader, but they should be understood as the result not merely 
of affection for his brother, or even of faith in his apostolate, 
but also from his own perception of the intrinsic worth of the 
undertakings themselves. We know itot what quality could be 
added to George Hecker to make him a model Christian of our 
day. 

His death had a serious effect on Father Hecker's state of 
body and mind. But from the previous autumn and during the 
winter following he had failed rapidly. In fact, he had request- 
ed and received the last Sacraments from Father Hewit on 
September 15, 1887; but this was on account of an alarming 
irregularity of the heart's action, which was but temporary. He 
had no long distance to drop at any time to get to the bot- 



41 6 The Life of Father Hecker. 

torn, and it became evident in the summer of 1888 that the end 
was not far off. He could not stand the strong air of Lake 
George that summer, and came home after being there but a 
couple of weeks. He tried the sea-side with even worse success ; 
and the short journeys he made were extremely painful. The 
paroxysms of angina pectoris became more frequent and daily left 
their victim less able to rally. Patience strained to the utter- 
most by physical suffering, the mind distressed, fits of despon- 
dency and of indescribable gloom, the weight of a body of death 
— all this he had borne for sixteen years, with only occasional 
intervals of peace. There was little left to suffer except death. 
His bodily resistance grew weaker towards the end of his last 
summer on earth, and he lost flesh rapidly. The fulness of 
his face was gone by autumn, and a wan look, as of decaying 
force, was stamped upon it. He suffered in literally every mem- 
ber of his body, by turns or simultaneously. We find the fol- 
lowing memorandum : 

" Question : What's the matter with the back of your head ? 
[he was rubbing it with extract of witch hazel]. Answer : It 
is sore, it hurts me. Q. Well ! As soon as one part is better 
another gets out of order? etc. A. Do you know it was all 
revealed to me and foretold [beginning to weep]. Q. When } 
In your novitiate ? A. Yes. Q. But not all the details of your 
sufferings? A. Yes, all the details. But I will not say 'another 
word about it. Q. But you ought to, etc. [He refused to say 
more.]" 

Little by little during the latter years Father Hecker's visi- 
tors had become very few. An occasional call was received 
from an old friend, lay or cleric, and this was not apt to be 
repeated, so painful was the contrast between the former Father 
Hecker and the present one. Instead of the active and power- 
ful man, of contagious courage and hopefulness, they saw a tall, 
wan old man bending with the weight of years and of suffering, 
but still majestic in his look and bearing, with a white beard, 
and soft, attractive eyes. The quick movement, the joyous greet- 
ing, even the smiling serenity, had passed away, and instead an 
air of sadness had come, or of enforced cheerfulness. 

The following memorandum, taken over two years before his 
death, tells of a relief which he hoped would be permanent ; but 
such was not to be the case : 



Conclusion. 417 



" Father Hecker said to-day : '■ Only within the last three 
days has God released me from the sensation that I might die 
any instant. Oh ! how I have suffered from that feeling for ten 
years. I did not know whether I should ever be delivered from 
it. Now, little by little God is lifting it off from my soul. For 
ten years I have been under this cloud. Oh, how terrible a suf- 
fering it has been ! * This he said, his hands covering his face ; he 
had interrupted me to say it while I was reading St. John of 
the Cross. ' Oh ! * he added, * how I could weep for my sins,* 
and so on for a few more words." 

The clouds soon settled down again. The following was 
noted a little over a month after the above : 

" Father Hecker said to me to-day : * There was a time when 
I seemed to know God so clearly and to be so conscious of 
His attraction that my whole thought and wish was death ; to 
break the chain of life to be united to God in Paradise. Now 
it is altogether different ; nothing but darkness and depression.' " 

Here is another memorandum, taken some time before the 
above : 

" Father Hecker said : ' God is now visiting me with the pro- 
foundest desolation of spirit. I have the most deadly terror of 
death ; if T yielded to it I should tremble from head to foot. 
Yet there is a spell on me which makes me wish that I may 
die without sensible faith and deprived of every present spiritual 
comfort. . . .' He also said many things about his continued 
and unbroken desolation of spirit these several years back. 
* Yet,' said he, * I never knew that God would permit me to 
come so near to Him and see so much of Him as I have.' 
Then he made me read to him the first chapter of the Book of 
Job. . . . After he had gone to bed I read to him part of 
an article in The Month on the indweUing of the Holy Spirit, 
and he discoursed meantime to me most profoundly on that 
topic. And he added : ' One reason why I have always been so 
much interested in the doctrine of the Holy Ghost acting in the 
soul is a practical one, because I myself have never had any 
other director, though I have more than once opened my mind 
entirely to others and profited by their advice, but none was or 
could be really my director. Hence, too, I am so much attracted 



41 8 The Life of Father Hecker. 

to saints who have had to struggle on alone like St. Catherine 
of Genoa, who was without a director for twenty-five years.' ** 

Towards the close of October, 1888, two months before death. 
Doctor Begen saw that the end was approaching. This was 
evident from a sudden and general failure of strength, the appe- 
tite, not much at any time, seeming now to vanish quite away, 
although Father Hecker's strong will forced down a little nour- 
ishment. This loss of strength caused the heart to work badly 
and to give an occasional sudden alarm. Internal congestions 
followed, relaxing the bowels and causing much bodily annoy- 
ance. Meantime he was hardly ever out of his room and many 
days he spent entirely in bed. His fits of depression of spirits 
were more frequent than usual and more saddening. He no 
longer rested at all, what sleep he got being produced by drugs 
and serving but to pass the time unconsciously. From the be- 
ginning of December he was apt to fall into a semi-comatose 
state, though generally in full use of his faculties. Some days 
before he died he seemed to realize that the long struggle was 
nearly over, and he no longer talked to the doctor or others of 
the medicines or of his bodily ailments, nor did he seem to 
think of them ; and his mind appeared to have suddenly grown 
peaceful. The Scriptures as well as other books were read to 
him, as usual, up to the very evening before he died. On the 
night of the 20th of December, two days after his sixty-ninth 
birthday, the last sacraments were administered. Father Hecker 
receiving them without visible emotion but in full consciousness. 
During the following day he was quiet and apparently free from 
acute pain, the benumbed body refusing to suffer more ; but the 
mind calm and attentive. When the morning of the 22d came 
all could see that his time was near at hand. In the middle 
of the forenoon the members of the community were gathered 
at the bedside, the prayers for the dying were read and the 
indulgence was given. As this was over the doctor arrived, 
and Father Hecker, who had gradually lost advertence to all 
around him, was roused by him into full consciousness, and 
gave the community his blessing, feebly raising his hand to 
make the sign of the cross and uttering the words in a light 
whisper. Then he sank away into unconsciousness and in an 
hour ceased to breathe. 

And so Father Hecker died. Our beloved teacher and 



Conclusion. 419 



father, so blameless and brave, so gentle and daring, so full of 
God and of humanity, entered into his eternal beatitude. 

Dying on Saturday, and so near Christmas, the funeral was 
delayed till Wednesday, the feast of St. Stephen, the body being 
embalmed. Christmas afternoon it was placed in the church 
and was visited and venerated by great throngs of people. A 
vast concourse attended the Requiem Mass the next morning, 
which was sung by Archbishop Corrigan surrounded by many 
priests, an eloquent sermon being preached by Father T. J. 
Campbell, the Provincial of the Jesuits. The body was placed in 
the vaults of the old cathedral. 

The life we have been following is a harmonious whole from 
beginning to end. The child tells of the youth, the youth 
promises a noble man, and the promise is more than fulfilled. 
He was guileless ; no dark ways of forbidden pleasure ever 
heard the sound of his footstep. There was no barter of con- 
science for ambition's prize. He was fearless ; from beginning to 
end there was no halt from want of courage. Nor did he rush 
forward before the light came to show the road, though he often 
chafed and panted to hear the word of Divine command ; he 
never moved at any other. But when the voice of God bade 
him forward he never flinched at any obstacle. The ever-re- 
curring persuasion that there were so few who saw God's will as 
he saw it cut him to the heart, and the mystery of the Divine 
times and moments grew upon him with fatal force till the end, 
until he drooped and pined away with grief that he could but 
taste the first-fruits. Yet he was ever submissive to the Divine 
Will, to live, to die, to begin, to end the work, to be alone or 
to be of many brethren, to lead or to follow. Though a most 
active spirit, he was yet contemplative, and to unite the mani- 
festation of the Holy Spirit in the inner and outer life was the 
end he always kept in view ; but he was distinctively an interior 
man. 

Few men since the Apostles have felt a quicker pulse than 
Isaac Hecker when the name of God was heard, or that of 
Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. Few men have had a nobler 
pride in the Church of Christ, or felt more one with her honor. 
Few men have grown into closer kinship with all the family of 
God, from Mary the great mother and the holy angels down to 
the simplest Catholic, than Isaac Hecker. But his peculiar trait 



420 The Life of Father Hecker. 

was fidelity to the inner voice. " There are some," he once said^ 
** for whom the predominant influence is the external one, author- 
ity, example, etc. ; others in whose lives the interior action of the 
Holy Spirit predominates. In my case, from my childhood, God 
influenced me by an "interior light and by the interior touch of 
his Holy Spirit." The desperate demand of Philip, " Lord, show 
us the Father and it is enough," was Father Hecker's cry all 
through early life. After the founding of his community, in 1858, 
his life was like an arctic year. From that date till 1872 there 
was no set of sun. The unclouded heavens bent over him ever 
smiling with God's glorious light; and its golden tints lit up all 
humanity with hope and joy. Then the sun went down to rise 
no more. The heavens were dark and silent, or rent asunder 
with wrathful storms, only a transient flash of the aurora reliev^ 
ing the gloom. When the light dawned again it was to beam 
upon his soul in the ecstasies of Paradise. 

We know not what to say of his faults, nor can we think 
that he had any that were not to be traced to his eager love of 
God's cause, such as his overpowering men with pleading for 
God in their souls ; or too easily crediting unworthy men who 
prated to him of hberty and the Holy Spirit ; or over-fondness 
during his illness for playing in the lists of fancy at an apos- 
tolate denied him in the battle of active life ; he repined 
at being forced to plan great battles in a sick-room. He 
could not help betraying a heart heaving with a pent-up ocean 
of zeal, while he was creeping about helplessly, often too feeble 
to speak above his breath. A lover of liberty, its only boon to 
him at last was liberty to accept and rivet upon himself the 
chain of patient love. 

Some may say *' Hecker was before his time." But no man 
is before his time if, having a divine message, he can get but 
one other to accept it, can arrest men's attention, can cause 
them to ponder, to ask why or why not, whether this be the 
day or only its vigil. The sower is not before his time though 
he dies before the harvest ; there is a time to sow and a time 
to reap. 

And now the tree is dead, but its ripe fruits are in our 
bosoms bearing living seeds, which will spring up in their time 
and give fruit again each according to its kind. 

The life of Father Hecker ie a strong invitation to the men 
of these times to become followers of God the Holy Ghost, to 



Conclusion. 



421 



fit their souls by prayer and penance in union with Christ and 
his Church, for the consecration of Hberty and inteUigence to 
the elevation of the human race to union with God. We do 
not bid him farewell, for this age, and especially this nation, will 
hail him and his teachings with greater and greater acclaim as 
time goes on. As God guides His Church to seek her Aposto 
late mainly in developing men's aspirations for better things into 
fulness of Catholic truth and virtue, Isaac Hecker will be found 
to have taught the principles and given the methods which will 
lead most surely to success. 




PRINTED AT THE COLUMBUS PRESS, 120-122 W. 60TH ST., N.Y. 



APPBNDIX. 



LETTERS FROM CARDINAL NEWMAN. 

L 

The Oratory, Birmingham, February 28, 1889. 
My Dear Father Hewit: I was very sorrowful at hearing of Father 
Hecker's death. I have ever felt that there was this sort of unity in our lives— that 
we had both begun a work of the same kind, he in America and I in England, and 
I know how zealous he was in promoting it. It is not many months since I re- 
ceived a vigorous and striking proof of it in the book he sent me ^The Church and 
the Age\. Now I am left with one friend less, and it remains with me to convey 
through you my best condolement to all the members of your, society. 
Hoping that you do not forget me in your prayers, 
I am, dear Father Hewit, 

most truly yours, 

John H. Card. Newman. 
II. 
The Oratory, Birmingham, March 15, 1890. 
Dear Father Hewit: In answer to your letter I am glad to be told what is 
so interesting to me, viz., that the Life of Father Hecker is in preparation. I had 
a great affection and reverence towards him, and felt that which so many good 
Cathohcs must have felt with me on hearing of his illness and death. I wish, as 
you ask me, that I could say something more definite than this of his life and 
writings, but my own correspondence with friends, and especially the infirmities 
of my age, burden me and make it impossible for me to venture upon it. This, 
alas ! is all that I have left me now by my years towards the fulfilment of welcome 
duties to the grateful memory of an effective Catholic writer (I do not forget his 
work in England) and a Benefactor, if I may usj the term, to the Catholic Reli- 
gion, whose name will ever be held in honor by the Catholic Church. 

Yours most truly, 

J. H. N. 



recollections of father hecker by the abbe xavier 
dufresne, of geneva. 

I. 

I first knew Father Hecker in 1873, meeting him at a Catholic Congress held 
at Ferney and presided over by Monsignor Mermillod. Father Hecker visited 
Geneva several times after that, living in the closest intimacy with our family. 



Appendix. 423 



He spent several weeks on a visit with my father. Dr. Dufresne, at a chalet situ- 
ated on SaPne mountain above Geneva, being at the time in feeble health and 
seeking recovery by a prolonged sojourn in Europe. For this enforced inactivity 
he recompensed himself by continual and earnest conversations, for the purpose 
of gaining to his ideas all whom he believed capable of understanding them, 
whether Protestants or Catholics. There was about him an indescribable charm 
which mysteriously drew one to him and penetrated one with his influence. Al- 
though he did not know French thoroughly and preferred to use English, yet he 
spoke with such power, elevation, exuberance, and depth of thought that he 
captivated his hearers. 

When I made Father Hecker's acquaintance I had just lost my eyesight, being 
at the end of my ecclesiastical studies, and not yet ordained. He did my soul 
much good by teaching me a kind of holiness which was joined to hvely intelli- 
gence and the most energetic activity. Father Hecker remains to me not only the 
type of an American priest, but of the modern one, the kind needed by the 
Church for the recovery of the ground lost as a result of Protestantism and infi- 
delity, as well as to enable her to start anew in her divine mission. 

n. 

The principal impression produced by Father Hecker on those who came in 
contact with him was one of sanctity. In his company one felt his whole being 
influenced as if by something venerable and supernatural, and a constant inclina- 
tion to correspond to the action of the Holy Spirit and submit the human will to 
the divine. In conversing with him about spiritual things one was transported 
into a higher region, the heart growing warmer and the conscience more sen- 
sitive. Father Hecker plainly inclined by habit to the type of character given us 
by Jesus Christ. He suffered much, both physically from weakness of nerves and 
morally on account of enforced inactivity, yet he not only never complained but 
was always cheerful. This was the greater merit in him because he seemed by 
nature impatient of opposition and contradiction. He had a sagacious mind and 
easily discovered the faults of others, but, although he spoke of men and affairs 
with openness and candor, he yet ever sought for favorable interpretations. Like 
St. Francis de Sales, he knew how to judge of people and yet remain full of charity 
for his neighbor. Profoundly individual, and profoundly attached to his ideas, 
like all Anglo-Saxons, and in fact like all who have acquired the Protestant habit 
of free inquiry, he nevertheless had for the Church a docihty almost naive and in- 
fantile ; and this was because he recognized in her the authority and the action of 
the Holy Spirit. 

It may be said of him without exaggeration that he was every moment ready, 
if it became necessary, to bear witness to the divinity of the Church by martyr- 
dom, and in fact he often made that declaration. In him the most heroic virtue 
was faith. He had come into the Catholic Church in spite of the most extreme 
natural repugnance, and he remained in it, overcoming the perpetual objection of 
Protestants that Catholicity could not be the truth because Catholic countries had 
become the least powerful and the least prosperous in the civilized world. On 
this point he loved to expound the text of Scripture which says that it is better to 
lose an eye and an arm and enter into the kingdom of heaven, than to save both, 



424 Appendix. 



and fall into hell. His piety was wholly interior. It consisted in the perpetual 
exercise of the presence of God. He had a natural disinclination for devotional 
practices as they are in vogue among the southern races. 

His tendency was to spiritualize as much as possible all the devotions in use in 
the Church. His own principal one was to the Holy Ghost and His divine Gifts. 
He never spoke of the Incarnation and the Eucharist without deep emotion and a 
contagious love. As to devotion to the Blessed Virgin, he explained it in a most 
elevated manner, ever showing, and with great dignity and nobility of manner, 
how it flowed from the principle of the divine maternity. The last book he sent 
me was one on the Blessed Virgin written by an American priest. Since Father 
Hecker's death I have never failed a single day to invoke him in my prayers, and 
to his intercession I attribute many graces obtained, some of them very important. 

III. 

Father Hecker had a marvellous openness of heart. I heard him relate 
several times the story of his life, his conversion, his joining the Redemptorists, 
his case before the Roman Congregations, and the founding of the Paulist com- 
munity. I can still recall the banks of the Lake of Geneva at the Villa Bartoloni, 
where Father Hecker, walking with a friend and myself, told us of his leaving the 
Redemptorist order. It was the way in which he talked of so delicate a matter 
that enabled me to appreciate that the man was a saint. He liked to repeat, 
while on this subject, what Cardinal Deschamps had said of him : " Here is a 
man who has been able to leave our Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer 
without committing even a venial sin." 

In my opinion. Father Hecker was, after Pere Lacordaire, the most remarkable 
sacred orator of the century. This does not apply to his writings, for his ideas 
lost much of their force in the process of getting into print. Like all natural 
orators his chief quality was a power of drawing and persuading, which, to use an 
expression often applied to Pere Lacordaire, had something magnetic about it. 
He had a prodigious gift of showing his Protestant or infidel hearers that their 
own hearts and their own reason aspired by instinct towards the Catholic truth 
which he was teaching them. In that way he drew his hearers to discover the 
truth in their own minds instead of receiving it by force of argument or any ex- 
trinsic authority. To acquire this power he had made a great study of the Gos- 
pel, and, sustained by Divine grace, he went about the exposition of the truth as 
Jesus Christ did. One of the most original aspects of his mind was that he joined 
the practical sense of the American to the taste and aptitude of the European 
for speculation. He had not been able to make a complete course of studies be- 
cause he had spent several years in commercial life, but he had great natural 
gifts for metaphysics, theology, and above all mysticism. 

Unlike the English converts of the Oxford school, he had reached Catholicity 
by way of liberal Protestantism, which he had renounced because it could not 
satisfy the religious aspirations of his nature. It would be interesting to study 
his case in connection with those of Newman and Manning, for it shows that souls 
are led to Catholicity by all roads, even the most opposite, and that minds most 
inclined to rationalize can be drawn to the Church as easily as those of a consen^- 
ative or traditional temperament. 



Appendix. 425 



IV. 

But I wish to dwell especially on what preoccupied Father Hecker's mind and 
formed the fundamental theme of his eloquent words. We were just on the mor- 
row of the Vatican Council, of the defeat of France by Prussia, and in the first 
agonies of the Culturkampf in Germany and Italy. Now, if one remembers that 
Father Hecker was of an American family originally from the town of Elberfeld, 
Prussia, he can better understand the gravity of the problem which weighed 
upon his mind, as upon that of so many others. Must we admit, it was asked, that 
the Council of the Vatican has affixed its seal upon the decadence of Catholicity, 
binding the Church to the failing fortunes of the Latin races ? Must Protestantism 
finally triumph with the Saxon races ? And here Father Hecker's faith did not 
halt an instant, but grasped the difficulty in all its terrible magnitude. His solu- 
tion may be questioned by some, but I believe that no one will dispute that the 
mind which conceived it was of the first order. 

Father Hecker remarked, as did many others, that, starting from the sixteenth 
century, the Church, although ever exerting a considerable influence, no longer ap- 
peared at the head of the world's activity. This was in contrast with what she 
had done in the era of the conversion of the Roman Empire, during that of the in- 
vasion of the barbarians, and amid the immense religious movement which charac- 
terized the apogee of the Middle Ages. Father Hecker discovered the cause of 
this lessening influence in the fact that since the sixteenth century the Church had 
been compelled to stand upon the defensive. This had greatly paralyzed her pow- 
er of initiation and her liberty. As a consequence of the Protestant heresy, which 
threatened the utter destruction of the principle of authority, the Church had been 
forced to concentrate on that side of her fortress all her means of defence. In 
order to protect herself from the excesses of the principle of individuality and free 
inquiry, she had been obliged to resort to a multitude of restrictive measures. 
which were conceived in a very different spirit from that which animated her in 
previous centuries. In the sixteenth century the Church placed before ever}thing 
else the idea of authority. She sacrificed the development of personality to foster- 
ing the association of men whose wills were absolutely merged by discipline in one 
powerful body. It can be seen at a glance how intimately and profoundly the 
spirit of the dominant religious orders of the later era differs from that of the great 
orders of the Middle Ages, in respect to the expansion of nature and the develop- 
ment of individuality. The needs of the sixteenth century were altogether differ- 
ent from those of the ages preceding it, and to meet those needs God inspired St. 
Ignatius with the idea of a different type of Christian character. The result was 
the triumphant repulse of Protestantism from all the southern nations. But the 
victory was gained at the price of real sacrifices ; the Catholics of the recent cen- 
turies have not displayed the puissant individuality of those of the Middle Ages, 
the types of which are St. Bernard, St. Gregory VII., Innocent HI., St. Thomas 
Aquinas. The Divine Spirit often exacts the sacrifice of certain human qualities 
for the preservation of the faith ; and it is in this sense that we should interpret 
the mysterious words of Jesus Christ, that it is better to lose an eye and an arm 
and not fall into hell; than to save an eye and an arm and be lost eternally. 

The Council of the Vatican, Father Hecker maintained, by giving to the princi- 
ple of authority its dogmatic completion, has placed it above all attacks, and con- 



426 Appendix. 



sequently has brought to a close the historical period in which it was necessary to 
devote all efforts to its defence. A new period now opens to the Church. She 
has been engaged during three centuries in perfecting her external organism, and 
securing to authority the place it should have in working out her divine life ; she 
will now undertake quite another part of her providential mission. It is now to be 
the individuality, the personality of souls, their free and vigorous initiative under the 
direct guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, which shall become the 
distinctive Catholic form of acting in these times. And this will all be done under 
the control of her divine supreme authority in the external order preventing error, 
eccentricity, and rashness. 

The Latin races were fitted by nature to be the principal instruments of the 
Holy Spirit during the period just passed. In the new one the Anglo-Saxon and 
Teutonic races, of a nature strongly individual and independent,^will take their 
turn as instruments of Divine Providence. This is not saying that the development 
of the Church is the result of the natural aptitudes of races, but that God, who 
has created these aptitudes, takes them one after the other, and at the hours He 
chooses, and causes them to serve as instruments for carrying out His designs. 
It was thus, from the fourth to the seventh century, that He made use of the meta- 
physical subtilty implanted by Him in the Greek genius, issuing in all those great 
definitions which have fixed riot only the substance but the verbal form of Catho- 
lic dogma. Hence the first general councils were all held in the East. 

Father Hecker cherished hopes for the conversion of the Teutonic and Anglo- 
Saxon races. Doubtless God could convert them suddenly, but considering the 
way heretofore followed that conversion will be brought about insensibly and by 
the two following instrumentalities : On the one hand, the new development of indi- 
viduality in souls within the Church will create a sympathetic attraction towards 
her on the part of Protestants, who will discover affinities with her of which they 
were wholly unaware. On the other hand, the more the Protestant races expand, 
the more they will find the dwarfed Christianity which they profess faUing short of 
their aspirations, and by that means they will be inclined towa^'ds Catholicity. It 
is not a little remarkable that Father Hecker expressed himself thus during the 
last years of the pontificate of Pius IX., at a moment when such ideas seemed to 
be least in favor in high Catholic circles. But soon afterwards the pontificate of 
Leo XIII. began, and with it a movement in the spirit indicated by the American 
priest, and in a manner so strikingly in accord with his views that Father Hecker 
seemed to have been enlightened from above in his presages of the future. 

Father Hecker developed a grand theological synthesis of what he called the, 
exterior and interior mission of the Holy Spirit in the Church. He has explained 
it in a pamphlet ; but how much more impressive it was when he expounded it in 
person ! We had the privilege of hearing him do so in a long conversation with 
the most celebrated Protestant minister of French-speaking countries, the illus- 
trious philosopher and orator, Ernest Naville. Father Hecker said that the an- 
tipathy of Protestants for the Church arose from the fact that they imagined that 
Catholicity reduced all religion to obedience to external authority. Protestants, 
on the other hand, pretend to ])lace all religion in the interior life, directly gene- 
rated in souls by the Holy Si)irit, and it is for this reason that Catholicity impresses 
them as a tyrannical usuri)ation and a s(u])i(l fonnalisni. In this they are deceived, 
as a close accjuainlance with Catholics and with such writings as those of St. 



Appendix. 427 



Francis de Sales and St. Teresa soon proves to them. So, also, when they fancy 
that the authority of the Church is not necessary to the preservation of the action 
of the Holy Spirit in the soul. As a matter of fact, the innumerable divisions of 
Protestants among themselves plainly show that the interior action of the Holy 
Ghost does not extend to making each individual infallible. To safeguard souls 
against deception, scepticism or illuminism, there is need of another action of the 
Holy Spirit which shall be conservative of the interior life. That other action is 
exterior, and is exercised by means of the authority of the Church. The Holy Spirit 
cannot be brought into contradiction with Himself. By His action in the exterior 
authority of the Church He can never interfere in the least degree with the fulness 
or the spontaneity of His own interior action in souls. 

The exterior action is one of control and of verification, to hinder souls from 
being lost in the depths of illusion and in the deceits of pride. But besides this, 
humility, obedience, self-abnegation, virtues dear by excellence to the heart of 
Jesus Christ, are impossible without due submission to the external authority. 
When one believes only in himself, he obeys only himself, and hence has never 
practised complete renunciation nor complete humility. 

Father Hecker also maintained that the direction of souls in confession should 
be made to strengthen and develop individual life. We do not need blood-letting, 
he said, as if we suffered from plethora, but rather we need a course of tonics, sea- 
baths, and the invigorating air of the mountains. We should not hold our peni- 
tents in leading-strings, but should teach them to live a self-reliant life under the 
direction of the Holy Spirit. Souls tempered by that process would render the 
Church a thousand times more service than they do now. 

No doubt such souls may sometimes run the risk of pride and of temptation to 
revolt. But in such cases the Church is so provided with power by the dogma of 
infallibility, as proclaimed by the Vatican Council, as to be able to counteract this 
danger without serious loss, as was proved in the case of Dollinger and the Old 
Catholics. 

The Holy Spirit, preparing for a great development of individual life, has made 
provision beforehand that the Church should be armed with power sufficient to re- 
press all waywardness, and this was done by the Vatican Council. Some had 
feared that the definition of infallibility would introduce an extravagant use of au- 
thority, and lead to a diminution of reasonable liberty and individuality in the 
Church even greater than before. But the very contrary has been the result. 

With reference to the interior life, I can affirm that Father Hecker's was full and 
rich. Having spent the greater part of his life in a devouring activity, at its close 
he lived as a true contemplative. He was a genuine mystic. We heard him dis- 
course with marvellous beauty on the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, ex- 
pounding these great truths in a way not only to enrapture one with their splen- 
dor, but utterly to refute deism, pantheism, and materialism. The latter error, he 
said; owed its introduction partly to the fact that Protestantism had refused to the 
senses their legitimate place in divine worship, this excessive spiritualizing having 
brought about a reaction. 

V. 

Father Hecker often spoke of the future reserved for Catholicity in the United 
States, saying that it was there that the union of the Church with democracy w^ould 



428 Appendix, 



first take place. In that nation the prejudice against the Church is not so strong as 
in Europe, and her position is free from the embarrassments of traditional difficul- 
ties. Catholicity is there valued for its immediate effect upon human nature, and 
the rancor born of historical recollections is not in such full control of men's 
minds; hence conversions are more easily made. Furthermore, Father Hecker 
believed that it would finally be discovered that the Protestant spirit is contrary to 
the political spirit of the American Republic. America has based her Constitution 
on the fact that man is born free, reasonable, and capable of self-government. 
The Protestant Reformers, on the contrary^ never ceased to teach that original sin 
deprived man of his free will and made him incapable of performing virtuous 
acts ; and if Protestants seek to escape from this whirlpool of fatalism, they fall 
into infidelity. The day will come when Americans will admit that if they are to 
be at once religious and reasonable, they must become Catholics. Therefore, 
whether it be acknowledged or not, every development of political liberty in the 
United States contributes to the advance of Catholicity. The Constitution of the 
United States has formulated the political principles most conformable to the 
Canons of the Council of Trent. 




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